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Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 

in  2007  with  funding  from 

IVIicrosoft  Corporation 


http://www.archive.org/details/americandemocracOOhayerich 


X 


DEAR  LAND  OF  ALL  MY  LOVE 

Long  as  thine  art  shall  love  true  love, 
Long  as  thy  science  truth  shall  know, 
Long  as  thine  eagle  harms  no  dove. 
Long  as  thy  law  by  law  shall  grow, 
Long  as  thy  God  is  God  above, 
Thy  brother  every  man  below, 
So  long,  dear  land  of  all  my  love, 
Thy  name  shall  shine,  thy  fame  shall  glow. 


From  The  Centennial  Ode  (18 yb)  by  Sidney  Lanier. 
Copyright  1891,  Charles  Scribner's  Sons. 


AMERICAN  DEMOCRACY 

ITS  HISTORY  AND  PROBLEMS 


BY 


BRIDGET  T.  HAYES 

East  High  School,  Minneapolis^  Minnesota 


NEW  YORK 

HENRY  HOLT  AND  COMPANY 


COPYBIGHT,    1921 
BY 

HENRY  HOLT  AND  COMPANY 


!#♦>     -  » 


PRO  PATRIA 


520513 


"Education,  of  the  kind  which  is  of  any  practical  value 
in  the  government  of  a  nation,  means  the  teaching  of 
human  motives,  of  humanizing  ideas,  of  some  system 
whereby  the  majority  of  electors  can  distinguish  the 
qualities  of  honesty  and  common-sense  in  the  candidate 
they  wish  to  elect.  I  do  not  pretend  to  say  what  that 
system  may  be,  but  I  assert  that  no  education  which  does 
not  lead  to  that  kind  of  knowledge  is  of  any  practical 
use  to  the  voting  majority  of  a  constitutionally  governed 
country/' — F.  M.  Crawford. 


CONTENTS 

PAGE 

Purpose  of  This  Book xiii 

Summaries  of  Chapters xvii 

Books  for  Special  Readings xxxv 

Introductory 3 

CHAPTER 

I     America's  Governmental  Inheritance  from 

Saxon  and  Medieval  England       .      .      .11 

II     America's  Governmental  Inheritance  from 

Modern  England^ 32 

III     Governmental  Development  IN  America    .      53 

IV     The  Great  Documents  of  Liberty     ...      77 

V     The  Making  of  the   Constitution  of  the 

United  States 95 

VI     The  Government  of  the  United  States     .    112 

VII     Great   Movements   that   Influenced    Pop-  \^ 

ULAR  Government  in  the 


United  States    .    131  V 
esmen  .     .      .      .153 


VIII     The  Great  American  Statesme 

IX     Authors  Who  Helped  to  Make  the  Amer- 
ican  Ideal 174 

X     The  French  Revolution  and  Afterwards  .    188 

XI     The  Government  of  Germany     ....   212 
vii 


viii  CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

XII     Revolutionary    Theories    of    Government 

AND  Economic  Relations 234 

XIII  The  Great  War — Causes  and  Preliminary 

Conditions 250 

XIV  The  Foreign  Policy  of  the  United  States    278 
XV     Citizenship  in  the  United  States     .      .      .    300 

XVI     American  Ideals 316 

XVII     Patriotism 335 

Appendix  I  Declaration  of  Independence  .  .  353 
Appendix  II  Constitution  of  the  United  States  359 
Index  383 


ILLUSTRATIONS 
Capitol  at  Washington Frontispiece 


PAGE 


In  the   Days  when   the   King   was   the   Dispenser   of 

Justice 5 

The  Committee  on  the  Declaration  of  Independence  .  6 
The  great  Trust  now  Descends  to  New  Hands  .      .      .10 

Alfred,  England's  Greatest  King 12 

Sections  39  and  40  of  Magna  Charta 22 

Officers  Receiving  and  Weighing  Coins,  1130-1174      .31 

Trial  of  Weights  and  Measures,  1497 34 

John  Hampden 39 

Gladstone  Addressing  the  House  of  Commons  .  .  47 
The  Opening  Lines  of  the  Peilnsylvania  Charter     .      .      54 

The  Seal  of  the  State  of  Virginia 57 

Hooker's  Emigration  to  Connecticut 59 

Statue  of  Roger  Williams      .      .      .      .....      61 

Lafayette .      68 

The  Charter  Oak 76 

King  John  is  Forced  to  Accept  Magna  Charta  .  .  .81 
The  Committee  on  the  Declaration  of  Independence  .  85 
Signatures  of  Declaration  of  Independence      ...      87 

The  Great  Emancipator 91 

Signing  of  the  Constitution 98 

President  Wilson  Addressing  Congress       .      .      .      .113 

A  National  Political  Convention 122 

ix 


X  ILLUSTRATIONS 


PAGE 


The  First  Philippine  Assembly,  1907     .      .      .      .      .129 

The  Lincoln  Memorial 130 

Thomas  Jefferson 132 

Alexander   Hamilton 133 

Tuskegee  Institute,  Alabama, 139 

Going  West 14^5 

The  University   of  Virginia 151 

George  Washington,  iSiMari  Por^rai^ 154 

Benjamin  Franklin 158 

James  Madison 161 

James  Monroe .      .      .164 

Andrew    Jackson 168 

Daniel  Webster     . .      .170 

James  Otis  against  the  Writs  of  Assistance      .      .      .175 

The  Estates  General,  1789 191 

The  Tennis  Court  Oath 197 

The  Frankfort  Convention,  1848 218 

The  American  Peace  Commissioners  at  Paris,  1783      .    273 

John  Quincy  Adams 287 

Pan-American  Building,  Washington  D.  C.      .      .      .    296 

Medal  Awarded  to  Henry  Clay 309 

President  Wilson  and  His  Cabinet,  1913     .      .      .      .317 
John  Marshall 322 


MAPS 
Sketched  by  Harry  V.  Johnson. 

PAGE 

North  America  at  the  time  of  the  Treaty  of  1783     .      .      70 

The  Colonies  with  the  Sea  to  Sea  Claims     ....      73 

Territorial  Growth  of  the  United  States      .      .      .      .144 

Europe  in  the  Middle  of  the  16th  Century      .      .      .193 

Europe  at  the  time  of  the  French  Revolution      .      .195 

Germany  from  1871  to  1914 228 

Germany  after  the  Versailles  Treaty,  1919      .      .      .230 

The  Races  of  Austria-Hungary 254 

Austria  after  the  Great  War 257 

Russia  before  and  after  the  Great  War      ....   259 

The  Balkan  States 263 

Africa  after  the  Great  War 269 

Europe  before  the  Great  War 275 

Europe  since  the  Great  War 276 

South  America 285 

Mexico,  Central  America,  and  the  West  Indies      .      .    290 

The  Possessions  of  the  United  States 347 

and 

Map  of  France  by  Departments 189 

xi 


THE  PURPOSE  OF  THIS  BOOK 

To  help  make  patriotism  vital  and  intelligent. 

To  quicken  the  desire  for  active  citizenship,  efficiency 
in  government  and  good  will. 

To  clarify  ideas  and  ideals  of  democracy 

by  enlarging  the  view  of  the  historical  growth  of 

government  by  the  people, 

by  teaching  the  principle  of  democracy, 

by  clearly  showing  that  the  years  that  follow  the 

Great  War  will  be  democracy's  supreme  test. 

To  promote  an  active  desire  for  acquaintance  with 
the  present  European  situation  and  its  relation  to 
America  and  the  world  by  constant  study  of 
periodicals,  newspapers,  maps  and  official '  pro- 
nouncements. 

To  make  plain  the  numerous  dangers  that  threaten 
the  American  ideal  of  government. 

To  make  the  United  States  a  reafl  democracy. 
In  a  Word 

To  make  intelligently  active  Americans. 

In  a  government  of  the  people,  for  the  people,  and  by 
the  people,  the  people  must  have  clear  ideas  and 
ideals  of  the  nature,  history,  and  principles  of 
democratic  government  that  they  may  have  the 
"will  to  succeed"  in  carrying  out  the  govern- 
mental experiment. 
Note  : 

The  usefulness  of  this  book  to  the  student  of  Amer- 
ican Democracy  will  depend  entirely  upon  his  definite 


xiv  THE  PURPOSE  OF  THIS  BOOK 

desire  to  make  himself  an  intelligent,  active  American 
citizen. 

When  this  purpose  is  fully  determined  upon,  the  stu- 
dent who  necessarily  already  has  many  ideas  about 
democratic  government  must  prepare  his  mind  for  the 
reception  of  new  material  on  the  subject  in  order  that 
he  may  relate  what  he  learns  to  his  previous  experience. 
No  knowledge  is  of  value  unless  it  can  be  organized 
with  what  is  already  known. 

As  a  help  in  this  process  of  getting  ready,  the  stu- 
dent should  make  a  careful  preliminary  examination  of 
what  he  knows  of  the  subjects  taken  up  under  the  chap- 
ter headings.  By  so  doing,  he  will  be  made  conscious 
of  his  own  power  and  of  his  own  needs  and,  as  a  con- 
sequence, his  thought  will  become  more  purposeful  and 
definite. 

As  a  basis  for  more  thoughtful  consideration  in  the 
making  of  the  pre-view,  summaries  of  the  chapters  have 
been  placed  at  the  beginning  of  the  text.  It  is  earn- 
estly urged  that  every  person  who  intends  to  use  the 
book  go  over  the  summaries  thoroughly  before- beginning 
the  study  of  any  topic.  This  will  give  a  good  idea  of 
the  field  covered  and  will  set  up  thinking  on  what  is 
coming.  When  the  student  has  gone  over  all  the  sum- 
maries, he  should  go  back  to  the  one  of  the  first  chapter 
and  read  it  over,  deliberating  as  he  reads  and  recalling 
what  he  knows  about  each  topic  suggested. 

Having  cleared  the  ground  in  his  mind  by  this  j)re- 
liminary  survey  of  the  knowledge  he  already  possesses, 
the  student  will  next  proceed  to  study  the  chapter  of 
which  he  has  just  made  a  pre-view. 

After  the  chapter  has  been  read,  and  at  least  some  of 
the  suggested  reading  has  been  done,  the  student  should 
return  to  the  chapter  summary  for  the  purpose  of  assur- 


THE  PURPOSE  OF  THIS  BOOK  xv 

ing  himself  that  what  he  has  studied  has  become  a  per- 
manent possession.  The  same  process  of  pre-view  and 
review  should  be  continued  in  the  study  of  each  chapter. 

When  the  book  has  been  completed,  the  entire  sum- 
mary should  be  reviewed  so  that  the  student  may  see 
what  progress  he  has  made  in  the  study  of  American 
Democracy.  Such  a  careful  and  painstaking  method  is 
recommended  in  the  study  of  any  book  but  particularly 
in  the  study  of  a  book  which  has  tlljp  definite  and  pur- 
poseful aim  of  teaching  American  principles.  The  stu- 
dent can  readily  see  that  in  a  democratic  form  of 
government,  more  than  in  any  other,  conscious,  direct- 
ing public  intelligence  is  necessary. 

It  is  also  earnestly  recommended  that  students  learn 
the  quotations  at  the  beginning  of  chapters ;  they  may 
often  serve  as  ready  weapons  in  the  hands  of  the  intelli- 
gent American  citizen  whose  knowledge  of  the  history 
of  democracy  must  reach  far  into  the  past  and  whose 
vision  of  the  future  should  go  beyond  the  confusion  of 
the  present. 

B.  T.  H. 


SOIMARIES 


CHAPTER  I 

SUSVITALS    OF   THS   SAU.T   EKGLISH    USaGS    ET    THX    UsmD 
TKB  PXBSKJCT  TUCK 

The  Moot  Court  «  Tfce  *»w» 

Tke  Ward 

The  Folk  Moot 

The  WiUn 

The  Curia  BegiB 

The  Ealderman 
The  Shire-reere 
Trial  by  Jutj  ia  1W  Gnad  Jwrj 

-%  The  Pclifr  Juy 

The  Petition  oi  Grievances  in  BSOm      VnmfH      ferfoie      T#gi»iatifc 


Consent  of  Commons  to  ^!ixes        in  Tlw    Bigjift  af   T^wm 


Majority  Bole  KitahHthrd  1429       —  Stil  ia  fona 

Limitation  of  Sofira^e  1425  - 

Responsibility  of  BiniaterB  —  !■! 

Psiviuc^K  or  Mejcbess  or  Pas-      Pkivii.s6«s  or  IIkm^eks  or  Lmsis- 

UAXKKT  LATITS   BOOIKS 

Freedom  ef  SpeeA  FiiiJam  ml  Speedt 

Freedom  from  Aimt  Fraed—  trmm 


NaXBS  to   Bk    RsMKMBn^  BfBBTl  TO  Bk 

King  Alfred  DtmOk  mi  Alfred— 901 

King  Edward  the  Confessor  Xw ■  Cae^eert — 1066 

Stephen  LaagtM  .     HagiB*  Chaxta — ^1215 

Simon  da  Mnatfart  Tbai  WmffiA  PuCameaft— 1265 

Edward  I  M^jvitr  BaJa'Fafrttihfi     1429 

John  Orindeeobbe  Oiaiililatiwil   OevH  Ectabiv^Wd  ^ 

William  Caxton  tka  cad  «C  tte  14tfc 

Ths  Bisx  or  THX  CoMMOsr  PsonjK 
The  Peasant's  Reroh — 1381  Serfdom 

Jaek  Cade's  Rebellion — 1450  1450 

Refskkxcss: 

A  Short  Histonr  of  the  Eagfidi  Ptephj     Jaha 
Any  other  reliahle  ISMmrj  ef  K^faad 

xvii 


xviii  SUMMARIES 

CHAPTER  II 

The  Tudors  1485-1603  The  Stuaets  1603-1688 
Henry  VII  James  I 

Henry  VIII  Charles  I 

Edward  VI  (Commonwealth) 

Mary  Charles  II 

Elizabeth  James  II 

Contrast 
All  ruled  despotically  under  consti-       The    people    began    to    question   the 
tutional  forms.     They  disregarded  authority     of     their     rulers     and 

the  real  desires  of  the  people  and  all    the    Stuarts    had    to    struggle 

established     arbitrary     institutions  with     Parliament     for     Supreme 

that  were  hard  to  break  down  Control 

Arbitrary  Courts  Unlawful  Taxes 

Star  Chamber  Court  Forced  loans 

Court  of  High  Commission  Benevolence 

Ship  money    (Under  Charles  I) 
•• 
Important  Events  that  Helped  Toward  Democracy 
1628     Petition  of  Right  —  Confirnied  Magna  Charta 

1688     Bill  of  Rights  —  Established   Parliamentary   Control  of 

King*/ 
1832     First  Reform  Bill  —  Abolished    Rotten    and    Pocket    Bor- 

oughs  and  gave  representatives   to 
new  citiesy 
1867     Second  Reform  Bill  —  Extended     suffrage    to    male     house- 

holders 
1872     The  Ballot  Act  —  Vote  by  ballot  instead  of  by  voice 

1885     The  Third  Reform  Bill         —  Granted     practically    universal    man- 
hood suffrage 
1911     The  House  of  Lords  lost  veto  power 
1918     The  Fourth  Reform  Bill      -=-  Granted  suffrage  to  women 

Demands  of  Chartists — 1848 
Annual  Parliaments  " —  5    year    parliament   established — 1911 

Vote  by  ballot         ,  —  Granted— 1872 

Universal   suffrage  —  Granted — 1918 

Payment  of  Members  of  Commons  —  Granted — 1911 
Abolishment  of   Property  qualifica- 
tions for  Members  of  Commons  —  Granted 
Equal  Electoral  districts  —  Granted 

Advanced  Legislation  in  England 

Municipal      Ownership      of  Public        Graduated   Taxes 

Utilities  Unearned  Increment  Tax 

"^ater  Old  Age  Pension 

Lighting  National  insurance  for  Workers 

Local  Transportation  Insurance   against  Unemployment 

References : 

A  Short  History  of  the  English  People — John  Richard  Green 

History  of  Our  Own  Times — Justin  McCarthy 

History  of  Modern  Europe — Hayes,   Hazen,   Seignobos,   Shapiro,   West 


SUMMARIES  xix 

CHAPTER  III 
Colonial  Assemblies  in  America 

The  House   of   Burgesses — Virginia  The     House     of  Representatives — 

■  Massachusetts 

The   General   Court — New   England  The  ^  House     of  Commons— South 

Colonies                                             '  Carolina 

Growth  Toward  Democracy  Helped 

by  representative  assemblies  in  all  colonies 

by   religious  toleration   in   Maryland,    Pennsylvania,   Rhode   Island,  New 
York 

Movements  Toward  Union 

1643  The  New  England  Confederation 

1754  The  Albany  Congress 

1765  The  Stamp  Act  Congress 

1774  The  First  Continental  Congress 
1775-1781     State   Constitutions   adopted 

1775  The  Second  Continental  Congress 

1776  Declaration  of  Independence 

1781  Cession  of  Western  Lands  to  the  United  States 

1787  The  Constitutional  Convention 

1789  Ratification  of  Constitution 

1789  United   States  under  Constitution 

Steps  in  Progress  Toward  Democracy  * 

The  General  Usage  of  Colonial  Assembligs^ 

The  Introduction  of  Religious  Toleration  as  a  Principle  in_a  Fe^i^Colonies 

The  Removal  of  Religious  and   Property  *Qualifications  in  New  States 

Like  action  by  Older  States 
Tlie  Common   People  begin  to  hold  Offices 
The    Democratic    Institutions    of   the   West 
The  Beginning  of  Labor  Unions  with  Labor  Programs 
The  Growth   of  Education  in  Public  and   Private  Schools 
The  Emancipation  of  Negroes 

The  Introduction  of  Referendum,  Initiative,   and  Recall 
The  Election  of  Senators  by  t»opular  Vote  "^ 
The  Primary  Elections  r 

The  Introduction  of  "Responsibility"  in  Local  Government 

The  City  Manager  Plan 

The  Commission  Form  of  City  Government 

Home  Rule  Charters 
The  Passage  of  Woman  Suffrage 

References: 

Burke — On  Conciliation  with  America 

James  Otis — In   Opposition   to  the  Writs  of  Assistance 

Patrick  Henry — Give  Me  Liberty  or  Give  Me  Death 

Benjamin  Franklin's  Examination  before  the  House  of  Commons 

A.  B.  Hart's  History  by  Contemporaries   (4  volumes) 

General  References: 

Histories  of  United   States  by  Fiske,  McMaster,  Channing,   Beard,  Fite, 
West,  or  any  other. 


> 


XX  SUMMARIES 

CHAPTER  IV 
Main  Provisions  of  Magna  Charta — 1215 

Fair  and  Prompt  Trial  by  Jury  Regulation  of  Trade 

The  Right  of  the  Council  to  Impose       Removal  of  Unjust  Tariffs 

Taxes  Beginning  of  the  Profession  of  Law 

Uniform  Weights  and  Measures  Equality   of  Freemen   before  Law 

Courts  made  more  free  Civil  War  made  Legal 

Ownership  of  Tools  by  Producers 

The   King's   being   made   subject  to   Barons   was   the   beginning  of   Parlia- 
mentary Government 

The  Publication  of  Magna  Charta  was  the  beginning  of  Open  Treaties 


From  Magna  Charta 

"Justice  shall  not  be  sold  or  delayed  or  refused  to'  any  man." 
Note:      "The  Taxing  Power  is  the  Sovereign  Power." 

Main   Divisions  op  the   Declaration  of  Independence — 1776 
The  Statement  of  Purpose 

To  Justify  action  of  American  Colonists 
The  Statement  of  Inalienable  Rights 

The  Right  of  life,  liberty,  and  the  pursuit  of  happiness 
The  Great  Doctrine  of  the  Declaration 
"Governments   derive   their   just   powers   from   the   Consent   of  the   GoV' 

erned" 
The  Justification  of  Revolution 

The  right  of  the  people  to  alter  or  abolish  unjust  government 
The  List  of  Grievances 
The  Declaration  of  Independence 


Emancipation  Proclamation 
An  exercise  of  the  War  Power   of  the  President  of  the  United  States 


Minor  Documents  of  Liberty 
The  Provisions  of  Oxford  The  Charter  of  Rhode  Island 

The  Mayflower  Compact  Penn's   Charter  of   Pennsylvania 

The  Virginia  Charter  The    CnnstUvfion    of    Virginia 

The  Toleration  Act  of  Maryland  The  Mecklenberg  Resolutions 


Principles  of  Just  Government 
as  set  forth  in  Philadelphia,    1918 

Just  government  comes  from  the  consent  of  the  Governed 
Inalienable  right  of  any  people  to  organize  their  own   Government 
Kindred  peoples  should  cooperate  for  common  welfare 
A  league  of  civilized  nations  of  the  world  should  enter  into  a  common  and 
binding  agreement  to  secure  justice  and  peace  for  all  men 

References: 

Liberty  Documents — Mabel  Hill 

The  Oration  delivered  July  4,   1918,  by  Woodrow  Wilson 


SUMMARIES  xxi 

CHAPTER  V 

The  Constitutional  Convention 

The  Two  Plans 

The  New  Jersey  Plan — a  revision  of  the  Articles 

The  Virginia  Plan — an  entirely  new  scheme  of  government 

Special  Work  by  Individuals 

Washington  presided  Gouverneur     Morris     revised     final 

Franklin  acted  as  peacemaker  draft 

Madison  kept  secret  Journal  Mason  and  Gerry  aided  by 

Hamilton  made  issues  plain  Franklin   fought  against   aristocracy 

Signers 
39  members  signed   (representing  12  states),   12  members  had  withdrawn 
Randolph,  Mason,   and  Gerry  refused  to  sign 

Notable  Absences 
Jefferson — Minister  to  France  Samuel  Adams 

John  Adams — Minister  to  England  Richard  Henry  Lee,   and 

John     Jay — Secretary     of     Foreign        Patrick    Henry    disapproved    of   the 
Affairs  Convention 

Men  Who  Helped  Secure  Ratification 
Madison,  Hamilton,   and  Jay  in  the  Federalist  Papers 
Madison   and  Marshall  in  Virginia  Convention 

John  Hancock  and  Samuel  Adams  in  the  Massachusetts  Convention 
Hamilton  in  New  York  Convfention  » 

Checks  and  Balances 
Congress  makes  the  Laws  —  The  President  can  veto  laws 

The   President  appoints  Supreme  —  The  Supreme  Court  passed  on  laws 

Court 
The   President  and   Senate  make  —  The    Senate    has    charge    of   Impeach- 

treaties    and    appoint    Ambas-  ment  of  President 

sadors 

Original  Purpose  of  Separation  of  Powers 

The  English  system  of  checks   (now  The  American  system  to  check  "tni' 

obsolete)    to    check    autocracy    of  bulency"  of  the  people 
king 

Common  Results  of  Our  System 
To  give  public  opinion  time  to  grow  for  or  against  measurea 
A   deadlock  between   President  and  Congress 
Nullification  of  needed  laws  by  Supreme  Court 

References: 

The   Critical   Period — John  Fiske 

Shall  Liberty  or  Empire  be   Sought — Patrick  Henry,   1788 

On   the   Adoption   of  the   Federal   Constitution  — Hamilton,    1788 

On  the  Federal  Constitution — John  Marshall,  1788 

Madison's  Journal  of  the  Constitution, 

Confederation   and  Constitution — McLaughlin 


xxu 


SUMMARIES 


CHAPTER  VI 


"We  must  study  the  government  with 
ness  to  the  people." — John  Fiske. 


view  to  discovering  its  useful- 


They    forbid 

with   freedom 
of  religion 
of  the  press 
of  speech 
of  petition 


The  "Bill  op  Rights"  of  the  Constitution 

The  First  Ten  Amendments 
Congress    to    interfere       They  prohibit 


general  warrants 
excessive  bail 
cruel  punishments 
quartering  of  troops 
They  guarantee  trial  by  jury 


They  limit  the   federal  government  to  powers  enumerated  in  the  Conltitu- 
tion 


Changes  by  Amendments 

President    and    Vice  president    of 

one  party,   1804 
Slavery   abolished,    1865 
Negroes  made  citizens,  1870 
Election    of    Senate    by    Popular 

Vote,   1913 
Tax  on  incomes  made  legal,  1913 
Abolition     of     manufacture     and 

sale  of  spirituous  liquors,  1919 
Women  given  suffrage,   1920 

Changes  by  Practice 
t     Popular  Election  of  President 

National  Political  Conventions 

The  President's  Cabinet 

Increased  power  of  the  President 


Changes  by  Interpretation  Made 

Possible 
The  Louisiana   Purchase,    1804 
The    Establishment    of     a    National 
Bank 
Internal    Improvements    such    as 

the  Cumberland   Road 
The  Regulation  of  Interstate  Com- 
merce   as    in    the    Pure    Food 
Law 


Changes  by  New  Dsvices 
Primary  Elections 
The   Referendum 
The   Recall 
The  Initiative 


"The  Principle  of  the  initiative  and  the  referendum  is  democratic.  It 
will  not  be  opposed  by  any  Democrat  who  indorses  the  Declaration  of 
Jefferson  that  the  people  are  capable  of  self  government ;  nor  will  it  be 
opposed  by  any  Republican  who  holds  to  Lincoln's  idea  that  this  should 
be  a  government  of  the  people,  by  the  people,  and  for  the  people." 

— Bryan 
Two  best  books  by  Foreigners  on  U.   S.  Government: 

DeToqueville — Democracy  in  America — 1835 

James   Bryce — The  American   Commonwealth — 1888 


Proposed  Changes 

Proportional    representation 
Compulsory  Voting 
Introduction  of  Budget  System 
Government  ownership   of   Public 

Utilities  and  public  resources 
Curtailing     power     of     Supreme 

Court 

References : 


Free  Government  Reports 
The  Laws  of  the  United  States 
Farmer's  Bulletins 
Political  Economy 
Labor 
Education 
Animal  Husbandry 
And  numberless  others 


American  Government — Magruder 

Contemporary  American   History — Beard 

The  New  American  Government  and  its  Work — J. 


T.  Young 


SUMMARIES  xxiii 

CHAPTER  VII 
Political  Parties 
"He  serves  his  party  best  who  serves  his  country  best." — R.  B.  Hayes 

Principles  op  Democratic  Party  in  1920 

Low  tariff  for  revenue  only  Recognition  of  any  "stable"  govern- 

Greater  popular  control  nient  in  Mexico 

Against  imperialism  Private  ownership  of  Railroads  with- 

Against    compulsory    arbitration    of  out  public  subsidies 

labor  disputes  in  private  industry       For    the    Versailles    League    of    Na- 
tions 

Principles  of  Republican  Party  in  1920 

High  tariff  for  protection  as  well  as  A  "Firm  Hand"  in  Mexico 

revenue  Private   ownership  of  railroads   and 

Narrower  control  of  government  shipping 

Imperialism  Against    Versailles    League    of    Na- 

Compulsory  courts  for  arbitration  of  tions   without   reservations 
labor   disputes   in    public   industry 

Note:     in   1920,  the  platforms  of  both  parties  stated  the  issues  in  very 

general  terms 

Socialist  Party  1920  Farmer  Labor  Party  1920 

Cancellation    of   all  War   Debts  Refusal  of  War  with  Mexico 

Dissolution  of  League   of  Nation*!  Non  exportation   of  weaker  people 

Creation   of   Representative  Interna-  Recognition    of   Ireland    and    Russia 

tional   Parliament  Independence    of    our    foreign    pos- 
Universal  Disarmament  sessions 

Recognition  of  Russia  and  Ireland  Abolition   of  secret  treaties 

Revision  of  Treaty  of  Peace  Public     ownership     of     all     utilities 
Foreign    investment    at    risk    of    in-  and   monopolies 

vestor  Right  of  labor  to  share  in  industry 


Labor 

Wendell  Phillips  said  that  the  Emancipation  of  Labor  would  be  the  next 
step  after  the  Emancipation  of  Slaves 

Cleveland,  the  first  president  to  do  so,  dealt  with  Labor  in  a  special 
message  in  1888 

The  Clayton  Anti  Trust  Law  passed  in  1913  declared  that  labor  was  not 
a  commodity,  that  labor  unions  were  not  trusts  or  combinations  in  re- 
straint of  trade.  This  has  been  called  "Labor's  Declaration  of  Inde- 
pendence." 

The    American    Federation    of    Labor    has    followed    a    conservative    policy 

favoring 
Conservation  The  eight  hour  day 

Municipal    and    Government   Owner-       The  six  day  week 

ship  of  natural  monopolies  Prohibition  of  child  labor 

Workingman's  Insurance  against  accidents  and  illness   and  unemployment 


xxiv  SUMMARIES 

CHAPTER  VII   (Continued) 

The  Tariff 
The   first   tariflf  in    1781 

One    of   Alexander  Hamilton's   great  financial  measures 
to  pay   the   national   debt 
io    carry    on    the    government 
to    encourage    and    protect    manufactures 
Tariffs   have   been    high   or   low   according  to   the   party  in  power 
Democrats   have    stood   for   low  tariff 
Republicans  for  high  tariff 

Education 

A  school  house  plant  on  every  hill 
Stretching  in  radiate   nerve  lines  thence 
The   quick   wires   of  intelligence. — Whittier. 

First  American  Colleges 
Harvard — 1636  Columbia   (King's  College) — 1754 

William  and  Mary — 1693  College      of      Rhode      Island — 1764 

Yale — 1701  (now  Brown   University) 

Princeton — 1746  University   of  Virginia — i819 

UrsuUnes  established  first  Woman's  College — 1728 
(New  Orleans) 

Article  Four  of  Northwest  Ordinance — 1787 
"Religion,   morality,   and  knowledge  being  necessary  to   government   and 
the  happ^'ness  of   mankind,   schools   and  the  means  of  education  shall  for- 
ever be  encouraged." 

Federal  Aids  to  Education 

Morrill  Act  1866 

Provided  endowments  for  higher  education  throughout  the  Union 

1885     Agricultural  experiment  stations  established 

Id  17      Smith-Hughes  Act 

Provides  aid  in  vocational  education  in  higher  knowledge 

"The   School  is   the   one    agency   that   may   be   controlled   definitely,    and 

consciously  for  the  purpose  of  unifying  the  people." 

References  : 

The  Story  of  the  Negro — Booker  T.  Washington 

Up  from  Slavery — Booker  T.  Washington 

The  Expansion  of  the  American  People — E.  E.   Sparks 

Winning  the  West — Roosevelt 

The  Oregon  Trail — Parkman 

Contemporary  American  History — C.  A.  Beard 

The  Making  of  a  Nation — Francis  Walker 

Industrial  History  of  the  United  States — Coman. 

The  Frontier  in  American  History — F.  J.  Turner. 

Public  Education  in  the  United  States — Cubberly. 


SUMMARIES  XXV 

CHAPTER  VIII 

These  Men  Laid  Moulding  Haxds  on  the  United  States  of  America 

George  Washington 
Military  Leader  First  President 

President  of   Constitutional   Conven-       Initiated    our    government    and    our 
tion  foreign  policy 

Benjamin  Franklin 
Secured  Foreign  Aid  Negotiated   Treaty   of   Paris    (1783) 

Alexander  Hamilton 
Established  United   States  Financial  System   and  thereby  made  possible  the 
survival  of  our  government  during  a  critical  period 

Thomas  Jefferson 
His  epitaph   (written  by  himself) 

Author  of  the  Declaration  of  Independence  and  of  the  Statute  of  Religious 
Freedom  for  Virginia  and   Founder  of  the  University  of  Virginia 

James  Madison 
Author  of  Compromise  that  made  ours  a  new  species  of  government  partly 
Federal,  partly  National 

John  Marshall 
Expounder   of  the   Constitution  International  Lawyer 

James  Monroe 
Promulgated  Monroe   Doctrine  which,  removed  the  New  World  from  Euro- 
pean Influence 

John  Quincy  Adams 
A  Great  Secretary  of  State  Fought    to    preserve    the    right    to 

Kept  the   United   States  free  to  con-  petition  for  redress  of  grievances 

duct  affairs  in  her  own  way  Defined  War   Powers  of  President 

Andrew  Jackson 
Brought  government  closer  to  people 
Helped  to  preserve  Union 

Henry  Clay 
Initiated  our  friendly  policy  toward        Kept  unification  by  Compromises 
South  American  Republics  Father  of  Internal   Improvement 

Daniel  Webster 
By  Gift  of  Eloquence  created  sentiment  in  favor  of  the  Union 

Abraham  Lincoln 
Freed  the  slaves  and  saved  the  Union 

Other  Men  that  Helped 
John  Adams                               Robert  Morris  Dabney  Can- 
John  Dickinson                          Patrick  Henry  Samuel  Adams 
Peyton  Randolph                       Charles  Pinckney  Roger  Sherman 
Dr.  Joseph  Warren                 John  Jay  John  Rutl'edge 


xxvi  SUMMARIES 

CHAPTER  VIII  (Continued) 
References : 

The  biographies  of  these  men. 

Their  own   accounts   in    autobiographies,   diaries,    and   letters. 

"Washington — On    His    Appointment    as    Cotnmander-in  Chief — 1775 

Farewell  Address — 1796 
Hamilton  and  Madison — Federalist  Papers 
Jefferson — A    Summary      View  of  the  Writers  of  America — 177? 

First  Inaugural — 1801 
Jackson — Second    Inaugural   Farewell   Address 
Clay — On   His  Own   Compromise   Measures    (1850) 
Webster — First  Bunker  Hill  Oration  1825 

Reply  to  Hayne  1830 

Tlie  Seventh  of  March  Speech  on  The  Clay  Compromise  1850 
Lincoln — The  House  Divided  Against  Itself    (1858) 

The  First  Debate  with  Douglas   (1858) 

The  First  Inaugural    (1861) 

The  Second  Inaugural   (1865) 
The  Great  Statesmen   Series 

The  Great  Epochs  of  American  History   (10  vols.) 
The  World's  Famous  Orations — (10  vols.) 
The  Men  Who  Made  the  Nation — E.  E.  Sparks. 

CHAPTER  IX 

"As  an  account  of  the  bold  spirits  engaged  in  desperate  adventures,  of 
the  planting  of  the  civilization  in  the  wilderness,  of  the  growth  of  free 
government,  the  sources  of  American  history  are  a  contribution  to  thp 
World's  Literature." — A.    B.    Hart. 

Books  not  Mentioned  in  Text 

Dr.  Sevier — George  Cable  The    Conqueror — Gertrude    Atherton 

The  Cavalier — Georse  Cable  The     Honorable     Peter     Sterling — 
Hugh  Wynne — S.  Wier  Mitchell  Paul    Leicester  Ford 

The    Crisis — Winston    Churchill  A       Gentleman       from       Indiana — 
Mrs.     Crewe's     Career — W  i  n  s  t  o  n  Booth  Tarkington 

Churchill  Ramona — Helen    Hunt  Jackson 

Prisoners     of     Hope — Mary     John-  The    Octopus — Frank   Norris 

stone  Tlie    Spy — Cooper 

Cease   Firing — Mary   Johnstone  John    Woolman's   Journal 

Life       on       the       Mississippi — Mark  The    Story   of   a   Country  Town — E. 

Twain  W.  Howe 

A  Son  of  the  Middle  Border — Ham-  The    Scarlet   Letter — Hawthorne 

lin  Garland  The  Rise  of  Silas  Lapham — Howells 

Poems  of  Faith  and  Courage 

The    Chambered    Nautilus — Holmes  The    Eternal    Goodness — ^Whittier 

The     Ladder     of     St.   ^Augustine —  Thanatopsis — Bryant 

Longfellow  '  To   a  Waterfowl — Bryant 

The    Builders — Longfellow  The    Song    of    the    Chattahoochee — 
The   Vision   of    Sir    Launfal — Lov/ell  Lanier 

The    Present    Crisis — Lowell  El  Dorado — Poe 

The    Vanishers — Whittier  Gloucester    Moors — Moody 


SUMMARIES 


XXVll 


CHAPTER  X 
Developmext  of  Democracy  in  France 

No  local  activity  politically 

1614 — Last  meeting  of  Estates — General  for  175  years 

1643  to  1715 — Autocracy  established  under  Louis  XIV — Taxes  and  duties 
imposed  by  kin?  and  council 

1715  to  1774 — Louis  XV  reign  left  France  bankrupt 

1789      Louis  XVI  summons  Estates  General 

1789  to  1795  The  French  Revolution — Permanent  reforms  made  in  the 
first  year  followed  by  complete  social  and  political  upheaval.  The 
land  went  to  the  people 

1795  to  1814  Napoleon  Bonaparte,  an  autocrat,  established  equality  be- 
fore the  law 

1814     The  Bourbons  restored 

1830     Revolution — Constitutional   monarchy 

18  48     Revolution — Republic    established 

1852     The    Second    Empire   established 

1870     The   Third   Repubhc    (which  continues   to-day)    established 


In  England  To-Day 
The  land  is  held  by  a  few  people 
The   national  debt  is   owed  to  great 

financiers 
The    people    are    actively    democratic 

and  restless 
The  Labor  Party  in  England  is 
working  on  an  advanced  and  rea- 
sonable program  of  democratic  re- 
forms which  tend  toward  more  ac 
tive  participation  in  local  and 
national  industry  and  government 


In  France  To  Day 
The  land  is  in  small  holdings 
In  France  the  national  debt  held  by 

the  people  in  small  bonds 
The  rural  people  are  passive  and  in- 

diis!(ri()us 
The  French  Republic  is  highly  cen- 
tralized. In  the  88  departments, 
the  policemen,  postmen,  and  all 
local  officers  are  appointed  by  cen- 
tral government  which  may  dis- 
solve the  elected  council  and  order 
a  new  election 


In  both  countries  the  foreign  policy  is  in  the  hands  of  a  small  group  of 
governmental  officials  who  are  not  controlled  by  the  people  in  any  sig- 
nificant degree 

Compare  slow  painful  progress  of  England  toward  democracy  with  the 
more  spasmodic  progress  in  France.  Yet  in  some  ways  the  condition  of 
the  French  people  is  better  than  the  condition  of  the  English  people. 


The   English   Constitution 
England    has    never    had    a    written 
constitution,    PRECEDENT  being 
her    only    guide.      The    latest    law 
passed  supercedes  all  other  laws 


French  Constitutions 
France  has  had  eleven   constitutions 

since  1791 
The    present    one,    made    in     1870, 

makes   no  mention   of  sovereignty 

of  the  people,   an   annual  budget, 

nor  a  national  judiciary 


References: 

The  French  Revolution — Matthews 
The   French    Revolution — Belloc 
The  France  of  To  Day — Wendell 


xxviii  SUMMARIES 

CHAPTER  XI 
Conditions  that  Hindered  German  Unity 

Great  number  of  "sovereign"  states  or  units — 1800  at  one  time. 
"Particularism" — The  German  term  for  State  Rights 

The    Holy    Roman    Empire — a    loose    league    of    states    each    jealous    of   its 
"sovereignty  " 


Forces  Tending  to  Union 

Napoleon's  harsh  measures  created  a  national  spirit 

The   Confederation   of  the  Rhine 

The  Germanic  Confederation 

The  influence  of  the  Universities  toward  a  liberal  union 

The  Frankfort  Convention  1848 


The  Forces  that  Made  Germany  Militaristic 

The  rise  of  Prussia  by  means  of  the  Army 
Reaction  after  failure  of  Frankfort  Convention 
The   Promulgation  of  the  Prussian  Constitution 
The  Appointment  of  Bismarck  as  Chancellor 
His  never-forgotten   aim, 

To  unite  Germany  by  means  of  the  Prussian  Army 


The  Steps  Taken  by  Bismarck 

"Defensive"  Wars  The  Ems  Dispatch 

Elimination  of  Austria  The   Franco  Prussian  War 

The  North  German  Federation  The  South  German  States  come  in 

Its  Constitution  Ratified  by  Princes  The  German  Empire  founded  1871 


Expressions  op  Autocracy 

James  I  of  England — The  Divine  Right  of  Kings 

Louis  XIV  of  France — I  am  the   State 

William  II  of  Germany — The  Will  of  the  King  is  the  Supreme  Law- 


Contrast  with  these  the  following: 

Edward  I — What  concerns  all  must  be  approved  by  all 
Declaration    of    Independence — Governments    derive    their    just    powers 
from  the  consent  of  the  governed  i 


References: 

Imperial  Germany — "Von  Biilow 

Modern  Europe — Hayes 

Modern    Europe — Hazen 

Reminiscences  of  Carl   Schurz 

The  Making  of  Modern  Germany — Schevill 


SUMMARIES  xxix 

CHAPTER  XII 
Words  and  Phrases  Much  Used  by  Socialists 

The  Materialistic  Conception  of  History  or  Economic  Determinism 
Surplus  value  The  Bourgeosie 

Direct  action  ,  The  Capitalistic  Class 

Wage  slavery  The  Workers 

The  Proletariat  The  Dictatorship   of   the   Proletariat 

Russia  is  an  example  of  the  "Dictatorship  of  the  Proletariat."  The  real 
"dictators"  consist  of  a  small  minority  who  have  seized  control  and  expect 
to  hold  it  indefinitely. 

Marxian  Doctrines 

All  wealth  comes  from  labor 

The    Church    is    and   has   always   been  a    bulwark   of   the   ruling  power 

Marriage  enslaves  women 

The  family  is  an  institution  of  slavery 

The  children  are  the  wards  of  the  state 

The  Materialistic  Conception  of  History 
Denies  the  Influence  of 

Socrates  Jesus  Christ 

Plato  Christianity 

Greek  Art  and  Literature  The   Crusades 

The  Hebrew  Idea  of  God  The  Renaissance 

The  Ten  Commandments  The   Reformation 

Extreme   Socialists  Moderate  Socialists 

advocate  advocate 

A  Class  War  Education   of  masses   in    Revolution- 

The   Revolution  by  Force  ary   Doctrine 

Sabotage  Political   measures — Gradual   reform 

A  Reformsr  not  Necessarily  a  Socialist 
One  may  believe  in 

The  Nationalization  of  Municipal  Ownership 

Railroads  *  The   Referendum 

Mines  The  Initiative 

Natural   Monopolies  The  Recall 

The  Closed  Shop  Graduated    Tax    on    Incomes    and 

The  Minimum  Wage  Excess  Profits 

Workman's  Insurance  Disarmament  of   all  nations 

The   Democratization   of   Industry  The  Brotherhood  of  all  men 

and  many  other  political  and  economic  changes 
And  yet   not   be   a   Socialist,   an  Anarchist,    an  I.    W.    W.   or   a  Bolshevik 

"There  are  no  political  panaceas  except  in  the  imagination  of  political 
<)uacks.  To  each  degree  and  each  variety  of  public  development  there  are 
corresponding  institutions,  best  answering  the  public  needs;  and  what  is 
meat  to  one  is  poison  to  another.  Freedom  is  for  those  who  are  fit  for  it 
The  rest  will  lose  it  or  turn  it  to  corruption.  .   .  ." — Francis  Parkman 

References : 

The  Elements  of   Socialism — John     Modern  Europe — Hayes 
Spargo.  Modern  Europe — Hazen 


XXX  SUMMARIES 

CHAPTER  XIII 

War  not  Necessary 

The  Scandinavian  countries  have  given  an  example  of  the  possibility  of 
the  peaceful  s^ettlement  of  political  difficulties  in  a  sane  and  orderly  way. 
In  September,  1905,  Norway  and  Sweden  because  of  the  desire  of  the 
majority  of  the  people  of  both  countries  arranged  a  peaceful  separation. 


A  Successful  Democracy 

Switzerland  has  on  the  whole  made  the  most  successful  democratic  ex- 
periment in  all  lines  political,  economic,  social  and  educational.  Two- 
thirds  of  her  people  are  Germans,  the  other  third  French  and  Italians. 
All  three  languages  are  official.     Yet  no  race  feeling  is  in  evidence. 


Sore   Spots   in   Europe   Caused  by  Forcing   Peoples  to   Be   Subject 
TO  AN  Alien  Government 

In  Germany  In  Russia   •  In   Great  Britain  and  Ireland 

•Alsace-Lorraine  Finland  Ireland 

Poland  Poland 

Schleswig-Holstein  In  Turkey 

In  Austria  Bulgaria 

Bohemia  Serbia 

Bosnia  Roumania 

Hertzegovina  Greece 

The  Versailles  Treaty  has  made  many  arrangements  that  are  more  than 
likely  to  devolop  into  sore  spots 

"No    man    is   good    enough   to   govern    another   man   without  the   other's 
consent." — Abraham  Lincoln 

Cost  of  the  Great  War 

Nine    miPion   lives;    Two   hundred    billion   dollars 
Machinery  for  producing  wealth  destroyed 
Moral  and  intellectual  loss  impossible  to  estimate 
Horrible  condition  of  Europe  morally,  socially,  economically 

Great  Britain's  War  Debt 
The  interest  alone  five  billion  dollars  a  year 

The  United  States'  Loss 

Slight  in  comparison  to  Europe's  loss  but  coptly  to  individuals 

Eighty  thousand  dead 

Two  hundred  forty  thousand -wounded  and  horribly  maimed 

Twenty  five  billion  dollars  war  debt 

General  unrest  and  lack  of  morale 

References: 

The   Roots  of  the  War — Davis 
A   Short  History  of  the  World  War — Hayes 
Germany's   Point  of  View — Von  Mack 
Now  It  Can  Be  Told— Philip  Gibbs 


SUMMARIES  xxxi 

CHAPTER  XIV 
Foreign  Policy  of  the  United  States 

International  law  differs  from  other  law  in  that  there  is  no  machinery 
for  enforcing  it  but  it  depends  upon  the  moral  sentiment  of  the  civilized 
world. 

The  Covenant  of  the  League  of  Nations  attempts  to  set  up  the  machin- 
ery for  an  international  body  that  will  have  authority  to  enforce  its  meas- 
ures and  decisions. 

A  generally  accepted  principle  of  International  Law  is  that  a  nation  has 
right  to  decide  its  own   form  of  government. 

Washington's  instructions  to  Minister  John  Jay:  "It  is  the  President's 
wish  that  the  characteristics  of  an  American  minister  should  be  marked  on 
the  one  hand  by  a  firmness  against  improper  compliances,  and  on  the  other 
by  sincerity,  candor,  truth,  and  prudence,  and  by  a  horror  of  finesse  and 
chicane." 

Jefferson  said:  "We  have  a  perfect  horror  of  anything  like  connecting 
ourselves  with  the  politics  of  Europe." 


Main  Points  of  Our  Foreign  Policy 
The   Open   Door  Neutrality  Arbitration 

The  Monroe  Doctrine  Freedom  of  the  Seas 

Encouragement  of  Republican  Government  Abroad 
Acknowledgment  of  De  Facto  Governments 


(Item  from  Associated  Press  July  14,  1920) 
Quiet  Revolt  in  Bolivia  1 
New  President  Takes  SeatI 
"The  revolution  in   Bolivia,   according  to  a  dispatch  to  the  Nacion  from 
LaPaz,   took  place   quietly,   with  the  aid  of  the   army.     The  deposed   presi- 
dent,   Guerra,    took    refuge    in    the    United    States    legation,    the    message 
stated.     Provisional    President    Savedera   has   notified   the   diplomatic   corps 
of  his  assumption  of  power." 

If  the   new   government  is   successful    in    maintaining   itself,   that  is   if  it 
becomes  a  "de  facto"  government,  the  United  States  will  acknowledge  it. 


As  a  result  of  the  Great  War  the   United   States  has  been  compelled  or 
will   be   compelled   to   face   many   issues   that  involve   the   other   nations   of 
the  world.      Among  these  are  the  following: 
Japanese  immigration  The   Case  of  Armenia 

Mandates  and  the  Open  Door  Recognition   of   Russia  and   Ireland 

Control  of  Cables  .   -    '  Commercial   Relations   with    Russia 

Access  to  Petroleum  of  the  World  A    definite    International     Policy 

Find  the  meaning  of  the  following  expressions: 
"The  Constitution  Does  not  Follow  the  Flag" 
"The  Doctrine  of  the  Continuous  Voyage." 

References: 

Washington's  Farewell  Address 

Clay — On  the  Emancipation  of  South  America,   1818 

Bryant — His  Welcome  to  Kossuth,  1851 

The  Monroe  Doctrine — A.  B.  Hart 


XXXll 


SUMMARIli:S 


CHAPTER  XV 


The  Citizen  Owes  Allegiance 
To   the    United    States 
To  his  own  State. 

The  Federal  Government  Controls 


Naturalization 

Relations    of    Individuals    to    other 

states 
Relations  of  Individuals  to  Foreign 

Countries 
Quality   of  Food   and   Medicine  sold 

to  Individuals 


The  trial  of  Individuals 
for  Sedition   and  Treason 
Counterfeiting 
Misusing  Mails 
In  Time  of  War 

The   Federal    Government   controls 
the    Individual    Citizen 


All  family  relations 
Marriage  and  Divorce 
Custody  of  children 
Inheritance 


The  State  Controls 
Education 

Property   and   industrial  conditions 
Suffrage   (until  1920) 
Criminal  law 


Civil  Rights 


Personal  Security 

Fire   and   Police  Protection 
Protection  from  accidents 
Freedom  from  necessity  of  testify- 
ing against  one's  self  i 
from  the  quartering  of  troops  i 
Property   Rights 

To  possess   property 

To  compensation  for  property  i 

To   due   process   of   law   in   being 

dispossessed   of    property  i 
To  freedom  from  unreasonable  re- 
strictions  on   use   of   property  1 


Personal  Liberty 

Freedom    of    religious    worship  2 

of  speech  2  and  of  assembly  2 
Right    to   petition    for    redress    of 
grievances 
to  proper  treatment  by  police 
to      indictment     before      grand 

jury  courts  1 
to  trial  by  jury  i 
to   a   writ  of   habeas   corpus  i 
to   a  reasonable   bail  or  fine  i 
to    equal    treatment   before    the 
law  1 


1  Guaranteed  by  Federal  Constitution       2  Not  guaranteed 


Political  Rights 
To  vote  To  hold  office 

Rights  Beginning  to  Be  Recognized  by  Law 


Rights  of  children 
To  a  home 
To   an   education 
To  separate  courts 
To    separate    places   of   correction 
To  develop  individual  talents 


Rights   of  Workers 

To  a  share  of  excess  profits 

To   a   minimum    wage 

To  form  labor  unions 

To  better  conditions  of  labor 

To  a  reasonable  period  of  labor 


Rights  of  General  Public 
To   protection   from  swindling  stock       To  protection  from  strikes  and  lock- 


sellers 
To  protection  from,  profiteerers 


outs 
To  efficient  transportation  systems 


References: 

American  Citizenship — 0.  A.  Beard 
Uncle  Sam's  Modern  Miracles — Du   Puy 
The  Strenuous  Life — Theodore  Roosevelt. 


SUMMARIES  xxxiii 

CHAPTER  XVI 

"There  is  no  method  of  making  democracy  by  machinery.  The  Gen- 
eral Will  will  prevail.  The  laws  are  usually  below  the  level  of  the  gen- 
eral will."-       -  ^ 

Main  Principles  of  the  American  Ideal 

Liberty  of  the  Individual 
Consideration  of  the  Common  Good 

American  Ideals         ^ 
Belief  in 
God  The  Sanctity  of  Home 

The  Dignity  of  Man  The   Compulsion  of   Duty 

The  Sacredness  of  Life  The  Force  of  Conscience 

The  Inviolability  of  Marriage  The  Binding  Power  of  a  Promise 

These  ideals  translated  'into  Govern-  They   make   the  bases   for   our   Tor- 
ment insure  to  individuals  eign  Policy 
Civil   Rights                                 -                    Arbitration 
Property  Rights                                             Tlie   Monroe   Doctrine 
Political   Rights     ••                                        The  Open  Door 
"Due  Process  of  Law"                                 Friendliness  to  other  nations 

American  Principles  and  Policies 

No  private  alliances  No  unjust  commercial  barriers 

Government  by  consent    \  Reduction  of  armaments 

Openness  of  treaties  Freedom  of  the  seas 

Conditions  Calling  for  Re-Adjustment 

Economic  Injustice 

Authentic  statistics  inform  us  that  sixty-five  per  cent,  of  our  people 
must  be  classed  as  poor,  and  that  they  become  objects  of  charity  through 
prolonged  illness  or  other  adverse  causes ;  fifteen  per  cent,  are  only  fairly 
comfortable;  eighteen  per  cent,  are  entirely  comfortable;  and  two  per  cent, 
of  our  people  hold  three-fifths  of  our  wealth. 


From  the  Bill  of  Rights  of  the  Virginia  Constitution 

Section  XV — That  no  free  government,  or  the  blessing  of  liberty,  can  be 
preserved  by  any  people,  but  by  a  firm  adherence  to  justice,  moderation, 
temperance,  frugality,  and  virtue,  and  by  frequent  recurrence  to  funda- 
mental principles. — Written  by  George  Mason 


References : 

American    Ideals — Theodore    Roosevelt 
The  New  Freedom — Woodrow  Wilson 
Modern     Democracies — Bryce 
Sovereignty  and  Consent — Macksey 
The  Real  Business  of  Living — Tufts. 
A  World  to   Mend — Margaret  Sherwood. 


LIST  OF  BOOKS 


For  Chapters 
A    Short  History   of  the   English   People — John   Richard 

Green    1-2 

History  of  England — L.  M.  Larson    1-2-10-11-12-13 

Source  Book  of  English  History — H.  Holt  and  Co 1-2 

Liberty    Documents — Mabel    Hill    4 

Historj'  of  the  United  States — Fiske,  Cheyney,  McMaster, 

Bancroft.   West,   Hart,   Beard,   Fite    3-4-5-6-7-14 

The  Expansion  of  the  American  People — E.  E.  Sparks.  .    6-7 

The  Men  Who  Made  the  Nation — E.  E.  Sparks    8 

Contemporary   American   History — C.    A.    Beard 6-7-14 

The  American   Revolution — Fiske    

The    Critical    Period — Fiske     5 

American  History  as  Told  by  Contemporaries — (4  vols.) 

A.   B.   Hart    

The  Monroe   Doctrine — A.  B.  Hart 14 

The    Beginnings    of    New   England — Fiske    3 

Old    Virginia — Fiske     3 

The    Making   of    a    Nation — Francis   Walker    3-5-6 

Confederation    and    Constitution^McLaughlin     3-6-7 

Preliminaries   of    a    Revolution — Howard    3 

Our  First  Century — Eggleston    3-6-7 

Struggle  For  a  Continent — Parkman 3-6-7 

Building    of    Our    Country — Southworth     3-5  to  7— 

Winning   the   West — Roosevelt    7 

Provincial    America — Green     3 

European   Background   of   American   History — Cheyney.    3 

The   Oregon  Trail — Parkman    7 

Side   Lights    on'  American    History — Elson    3-5-6-7 

The  Soul  of  the  Black  Man — DuBois    7 

The   New  American   Government  and   Its   Work — James 

T.  Young 3-6-15 

American    Government    and    Politics — Beard    3-6-15 

The  American   Government — F.  J.   Haskins    3-6-15 

American  Citizenship — Beard    15 

American  Government — F.  A.  Magruder 6-15 

National   Development — E.   E.   Sparks    3-6-7-14 

The  American  Commonwealth — Bryce    6 

Modern    Democracies — Bryce    6-10-13-16 

Democracy  in  America — de  Toqueville 6 

Uncle  Sam's  Modern  Miracles — ^W.  A.  Dupuy 15 

Life   of    Lincoln — Helen    Nicolay    8 

John    Nicolay     8 

Norman    Hapgood     8 

Henry  Clay — Carl  Schurz    8-14 

Roger  Williams — O.   S.   Straus    

Life   of  George   Mason — Kate   Mason    Rowland    3-6 

XXXV 


xxxvi  LIST  OF  BOOKS 

For  Chapters 

Gouverneur  Morris — Theodore  Roosevelt 8 

Samuel  Adams — Hosmer    3 

Thomas    Benton — Roosevelt     8 

George    Washington — Woodrow    Wilson     3-5-6-14 

John    Hay — Thayer 14 

The  Life  of  John  Marshall — Albert  J.   Beveridge    6 

American    Literature — Katherine    Lee    Bates    9 

A  General  Survey  of  American  Literature — Mary  Fisher  9 

American    Literature — Pancoast    9 

A  History  of  American  Literature — Moses   Coit  Tyler .  .    9 
Literary    History    of    the    American    Revolution — M.    C. 

Tyler     9 

Personal  Narrative  of   Political  Experiences — R.  M.   La- 

Follette      3-6-7-15-16 

Fifty  Years   of   My   Life — Theodore   Roosevelt    7-15-16 

The   Course  of  American  History — W,  Wilson    9 

Sovereignty   and    Consent — Macksey    16 

Brand   Whitlock — Fifty  Years   of   It    15-16-17 

The  Story  of  the  Negro — Booker  T.  Washington 7 

Up   From   Slavery — Booker   T.   Washington    7 

The   Journal   of   William   Maclay    6-7 

Life  on  the  Mississippi — S,  L.  Clemens   (Mark  Twain) .    7 

Reminiscences  of  Carl  Schurz    11 

"Marse    Henry" — By    Henry    Watterson    6-7-15-16 

The  Eve  of  the  French  Revolution — Lowell   10 

The  French   Revolution — Shailer  Matthews    10 

The   French    Revolution — Belloc    10 

The   France   of   To-day — Wendell    10 

The  Making  of  Modern  Germany — Schevill 11 

Imperial    Germany — Von    Billow    11 

The     Development    of    Modern    Europe — Robinson     and 

Beard      10-11-12-13 

Europe  since   1815 — C.   D.  Hazen    10-11-12-13 

Modern  Europe — C.   T>.  Hazen 10-11-12-13 

Social   Progress   in   Contemporary  Europe — F.   A.   Ogg.  .  10-11-12-13 

Modern   Progress — W.   M.  West   10-11-12-13 

Tlie  Governments  of  Europe — Ogg 

The    Social   Interpretation   of   History — A   Refutation   of 

Marx's  Theory — Maurice  Williams    12 

The  Roots  of  the  War — Davis    13 

A  Short  History  of  the  World  War — C.  J.  H.  Hayes ...  13 
A  Political  and  Social  History  of  Europe — C.  J.  H. 

Hayes 10-11-12-13-11 

Germany's   Point   of  View — Von  Mach    13 

Now  It  Can  Be  Told— Sir  Philip  Gibbs 13 

A  French  Woman's  Notes  on  the  War    13 

A    Hilltop   on   the   Marne — Mildred   Aldrich    13 

A  Little  History  of  the   Great  War — Vast 13 

American   Ideals — Theodore   Roosevelt    16 

The   Strenuous   Life — Theodore  Roosevelt    16-17 

Utopia — Sir    Thomas   More    16 

The    Republic — Plato    16 

The  Real  Business  of  Living — Tufts    16-17 

A  World  to  Mend — Margaret   Sherwood    16-17 

The    New   Freedom — Woodrow   Wilson    15-16-17 


AMERICAN  DEMOCRACY 


INTRODUCTORY  CHAPTER 

The  United  States  of  America,  together  with  the 
other  nations  of  the  world,  has  recently  been  through 
the  terrific  experience  of  the  Great  War.  But  though 
the  actual  fighting  is  over,  the  world  finds  that  peace 
has  not  come.  Even  in  our  own  country  there  is  much 
unrest  and  lack  of  harmony.  All  thinking  men  are 
looking  for  a  way  to  reach  a  satisfactory  settlement  of 
national  questions  that  our  people  may  assist  "  by 
example,  by  sober  friendly  counsel,  and  by  material 
aid  in  the  establishment  of  a  just  Democracy  through- 
out the  world." 

The  United  States  finds  herself  confronted  by  this 
great  task,  which  she  realizes  she  must  undertake  with 
courage  and  calmness.  She  has  come  to  see  clearly 
that  the  American  government  is  a  great  experiment 
that  has  not  yet  been  fully  worked  out.  She  finds  that 
in  her  own  country  as  in  the  rest  of  the  world,  there 
is  fundamental  divergence  of  opinion  as  to  the  correct 
underlying  principles  of  government  and  economics.  A 
flood  of  revolutionary  doctrine  that  urges  the  complete 
overthrow  of  existing  institutions  has  become  current  in 
the  United  States  as  well  as  in  Europe.  The  necessity 
for  such  an  upheaval  is  not  evident,  for  while  the  vast 
majority  of  people  in  this  country  see  great  injustices 
and  imperfections  in  our  economic  system,  they  believe 
that  conditions  can  be  remedied  by  orderly  constitu- 
tional methods  without  resorting  to  force. 

3 


4  INT.RODUCTORY 

-'  •  In  6i*der'that  the  people  of  the  United  States  may  be 
able  to  contend  with  the  revolutionary  forces  which  are 
making  themselves  felt,  and  more  particularly,  in  order 
that  they  may  set  afoot  remedies  for  existing  injustices, 
it  is  necessary  that  they  become  keenly  alive  to  the  issues 
involved,  thoroughly  intelligent  as  to  the  fundamental 
principles  of  government,  and  ardently  active  in  bring- 
ing about  needed  reforms  which  alone  will  prove  the 
sincerity  of  their  desire  for  a  better  state  of  things. 
This  will  require  a  steadfast  devotion  to  the  principles 
of  American  government  and  entail  a  definite  and  sus- 
tained intellectual  effort,  not  by  a  few  people,  but  by  a 
majority  of  the  people  of  this  Republic. 

In  such  a  campaign  of  education,  the  schools  are 
bound  to  pla}^  a  conspicuous  part,  as  the  hope  of  the 
American  experiment  lies  in  the  schools  of  America. 
Revolutionary  theorists  recognize  the  importance  of 
the  schools  in  forwarding  their  propaganda,  and  have 
es'tablished  schools  of  social  science  to  train  their 
workers  — "  Sunday  schools  "  for  young  people  who  in 
their  daily  lives  will  come  in  contact  with  others  and 
sow  the  seedis  of  revolution.  They  have  their  writers, 
their  publishers,  their  "  modern  "  book  stores.  They 
aim,  moreover,  to  get  possession  of  the  public  schools. 

Against  this  revolutionary  movement  certain  reac- 
tionary forces  would  like  to  use  stern  measures.  There 
is  much  talk  about  "  stamping  out  "  the  revolution, 
and  of  cleansing  the  public  schools  of  radical  teachers. 
This  method  of  settling  the  unrest  is  not  effective.  Re- 
pression and  persecution  will  not  avail  to  eradicate 
revolutionary  doctrine.  It  must  be  met  by  a  counter- 
revolution which  uses  ideas  and  ideals  for  its  strong 
weapons.  These  weapons  must  be  put  into  the  hands 
of  our  youth,  for  while  all  Americans  should  receive 

\ 


INTRODUCTORY  5 

training  in  the  army  of  citizenship,  the  most  effective 
and  far-reaching  work  can  be  done  in  the  schools. 

In  the  past,  the  schools  of  the  United  States  have  not 
directly  taught  citizenship,  although  they  have  taught 
it  indirectly  and  have  created  a  fine  spirit  of  loyalty  to 
the  nation.  Now  they  must  go  farther  and  teach 
young  Americans  to  know  the  reasons  for  the  faith  that 
is  in  them.  Patriotism  can  best  be  taught,  not  by 
pledging  allegiance  to  the  flag,  but  by  knowing  what 
the  flag  stands  for,  and  by  living  up  to  the  principles 
that  allegiance  to  the  flag  includes. 

Among  the  first  requisites  for  intelligent  American 
citizenship  is  a  fairly  clear  understanding  of  the  history 
and  sources  of  the  government  of  the  United  States. 
These  sources  lie  far  back  in  the  past  and  must  be 
traced  in  a  simple  way  from  Saxon  England  through 
the  Norman,  the  Tudor,  and  the  Stuart  periods, 
through  the  Colonial  beginnings  of  the  United  States, 


In  the  Days  when  the  King  was  the 
Dispenser  of  Justice: 


"  To  no  one  will  we  sell,  to  no  one  will 
we  refuse  or  delay  right  or  justice." — 
Section  40,  Magna  Charta. 


6  INTRODUCTORY 

and  from  the  Declaration  of  Independence  and  the 
making  of  the  Constitution  to  the  present  time.  In 
this  survey,  the  American  will  see  how  slowly  and  pain- 
fully has  grown  the  practice  ^  of  government  based  on 
the  principle  that  "governments  derive  their  just 
powers  from  the  consent  of  the  governed."  He  will 
need  this  background  of  information  to  help  him  decide 
whether,  in  his  desire  to  make  things  better,  he  is  will- 


The  Committee  ox  the  Declaration  of  Ixdependexce 

Thomas   JefFerson  Benjamin    Franklin 

John  Adams  Roger  Sherman 

Robert  Livingston 

From  Sparks'  Men  who  Made   the  Nation,  courtesy 
of  The  Macmillan  Compani/ 


INTRODUCTORY  7 

ing  to  risk  a  complete  overturning  of  social,  political, 
and  economic  relations. 

Besides  a  knowledge  of  the  historical  sources  of  the 
American  government,  a  familiarity  with  the  narrative 
of  the  making  of  the  Constitution  is  necessary,  that  the 
future  citizen  may  understand  to  how  great  an  extent 
the  framing  of  the  fundamental  law  of  our  government 
was  the  arduous  work  of  hard-headed,  practical,  but 
essentially  patriotic  citizens,  and  not  a  thing  inspired 
and  struck  off  in  one  great  moment.  He  will  find  that 
the  record  of  the  Constitutional  Convention  of  1787 
is  the  story  of  a  tense  and  vital  struggle  that  was  waged 
for  four  long  months  behind  clos'ed  doors  at  Philadel- 
phia. He  will  learn  that  after  the  Constitution  had 
been  given  out  for  the  approval  of  the  states,  the  strug- 
gle for  its  adoption  was  no  less  keen  than  that  in  the 
Coilvention. 

Having  become  familiar  with  the  narrative  of  the 
making  of  the  Constitution,  the  student  of  American 
Democracy  will  study  carefully  the  provisions  of  the 
Constitution  and  inform  himself  as  to  what  they  were 
intended  to  accomplish,  that  he  may  set  himself  to 
judge  whether  or  not  those  ends  have  been  attained. 
He  will  not  be  satisfied  with  a  mere  study  of  the  pro- 
visions of  the  Constitution,  but  he  will  go  further  and 
find  that  in  sbme  particulars  the  Constitution  has  , 
worked  out  in  a  different  way  than  the  framers  intended 
that  it  should.  He  will  learn  that  the  plans  so  care- 
fully laid  had  to  be  altered  in  several  respects  almost 
as  soon  as  the  government  had  been  set  up.  Finally 
he  will  look  at  the  government  and  stek  to  find  out  how 
it  operates  at  the  present  time  and  what  its  present  \ 
tendencies  are. 

That  he  may  better  understand  the  governmental  in- 


8  INTRODUCTORY 

stitutions  and  practices  of  his  own  nation,  the  Amer- 
ican will  familiarize  himself  with  the  present-day  gov- 
ernments of  other  countries,  and  compare  and  contrast 
them  with  those  of  the  United  States.  For  this  pur- 
pose the  American  will  study  the  present  British 
government  that  he  may  justify  or  disprove  the  state- 
ment often  made  that  the  English  government  is  more 
democratic  than  that  of  the  United  States.  In  order 
to  contrast  the  slow  and  sure  growth  of  American 
governmental  institutions  with  more  violent  revolu- 
tionary methods  of  change,  it  will  be  necessary 
to  know  something  about  the  French  Revolution 
and  its  influence  in  helping  and  hindering  the  growth 
of  democratic  government.  It  is  said  that  the  Great 
War  was  caused  by  a  conflict  of  ideals ;  that  the  United 
States  entered  it  because  the  democratic  ideal  was  in 
grave  peril  from  the  autocracy  of  Germany.  There- 
fore the  government  of  Germany  must  be  studied. 
Revolutionary  theories  and  schemes  for  making  over 
society  must  also  be  studied  that  their  danger  to  the 
American  ideal  may  be  made  evident. 

In  these  days  when  there  is  much  talk  of  "  scraps  of 
paper  "  and  the  sacredness  of  treaties,  the  clear-minded 
American  will  wish  to  know  for  himself  the  provisions 
of  the  great  documents  of  liberty  which  are  commonly 
referred  to  —  Magna  Charta,  the  Petition  of  Right, 
The  Declaration  of  Independence,  the  Constitution  of 
the  United  States,  and  the  Emancipation  Proclamation. 
A  readiness  in  the  reading  and  digesting  of  the  con- 
tents of  documents  has  become  necessary  to  intelligent 
people  the  world  over.  No  one  need  try  to  understand 
present  world  afl'airs  unless  he  is  willing  to  read 
thoughtfully   and   carefully   the   frequent   official   pro- 


INTRODUCTORY  9 

nouncements  of  European  diplomats  as  well  as  those  of 
the  President  of  the  United  States  and  the  other  leaders 
in  our  national  politics. 

When  the  American  has  grounded  himself  in  the 
history  of  the  growth  of  his  own  government,  when  he 
has  the  different  kinds  of  government  clearly  in  mind,  he 
will  be  ready  to  study  the  causes  of  the  Great  War. 
This  will  require  a  brief  survey  of  European  history 
since  the  Franco-Prussian  War,  a  study  of  the  great 
alliances —  the  Triple  Alliance  and  the  Triple  Entente 
— and  an  understanding  of  the  situation  that  held  in  the 
Austro-Hungarian  Empire  and  the  Balkan  Peninsula 
up  to  1914.  In  order  to  understand  the  neutrality  of 
the  United  States  during  the  first  years"  of  the  Great 
War,  it  will  be  necessary  to  have  clear  ideas  in  regard  to 
the  foreign  policy  of  the  United  States  prior  to  1917 ; 
in  other  words  to  know  what  is  meant  by  the  "  Monroe 
Doctrine,"  the  "  freedom  of  the  seas,"  ''  international 
arbitration,"  and  the  "  open  door." 

All  of  this  study  should  help  to  make  clear  the  rights, 
the  privileges,  and  the  duties  of  the  individual  citizen  of 
the  United  States.  That  these  ideas  and  ideals  may  be 
made  plain  is  the  main  purpose  of  the  study  of  the 
government  of  the  United  States,  since  the  success'  of 
the  American  experiment  depends  on  the  intelligence 
and  good  will  of  the  majority  of  the  people. 

Having  gone  carefully  over  all  this  mapped-out 
ground,  the  American  should  draw  up  for  himself  a 
declaration  of  faith ;  in  other  words,  he  should  put  into 
plain  language  the  ideals  that  underlie  the  government 
of  the  United  States  and  should  then  see  for  himself 
how  those  ideals  apply  to  actual  cases,  noting  where 
they  have  worked  out  and  where  they  have  failed. 


10 


INTRODUCTORY 


When  all  of  these  things  are  fairly  well  in  mind,  the 
American  is  ready  to  ask  himself  exactly  what  may  be 
his  patriotic  duty  in  the  present  crisis.  He  will  find 
that  to  be  an  American  citizen  is  no  "  short  course," 
but  rather  a  serious  business  in  the  conduct  of  which 
he  must  never  go  to  sleep.  The  following  book  may  be 
considered  a  primer  for  the  citizen  of  the  United  States, 
containing  but  the  rudiments  of  knowledge  which  it  will 
take  a  long  and  actively  intelligent  life  time  to  amplify. 


"  The  great  trust  now  descends  to  new 
hands." —  Webster. 


CHAPTER  I 

AMERICA'S  GOVERNMENTAL  INHERITANCE 
FROM  SAXON  AND  MEDIEVAL  ENGLAND 

Freedom,  the  old  poet  says,  is  a  noble  thing;  it  is  also  a  very 
ancient  thing.  Freeman. 

It  is  hard  for  an  American  to  realize  that  there  ever 
was  a  time  when  people  of  enterprise  and  perseverence, 
even  though  humbly  born,  were  not  allowed  individual 
freedom  and  an  opportunity  for  advancement.  In  all 
personal  matters  the  American  Youth  pleases  himself; 
in  affairs  where  others  than  himself  are  concerned,  he 
becomes  a  part  of  an  organization  conducted  under 
majority  rule.  The  young  American  grows  to  man- 
hood functioning  as  a  part  of  a  body  of  individuals  in 
the  political  organization  of  his  town,  his  state,  his 
nation.  To  meet,  to  discuss,  to  vote,  to  submit  to  the 
rule  of  the  majority  are  the  recognized  and  natural 
methods  of  carrying  on  the  business  of  the  club,  the 
society,  the  city,  the  state,  and  the  nation. 

In  fact,  the  American  people  are  so  accustomed  to 
the  American  method  of  carrying  on  affairs  in  which 
a  number  of  people  are  concerned  that  they  think  very 
little  about  how  it  happened  that  the  majority  came  to 
decide  upon  matters  that  are  put  to  vote.  Those  whp 
make  up  the  minority  accept  the  decision  without  ques- 
tion, waiting  for  another  day  to  get  their  measures 
carried  through,  if  at  all.  Yet  the  obscure  beginnings 
of  government  by  the  people  lie  farther  back  in  our 

11 


12  AMERICAN  DEMOCRACY 

history  than  does  the  principle  of  majority  rule  which 
is  the  common  method  of  procedure  in  all  governments 
directed  by  the  people. 


H.  Thornycroft,  R.  A.  Sculptor 

Alfred,  England's  Greatest  King 

SAXON    ENGLAND 

At  an  early  date  a  rude  form  of  government  by  the 
people  came  into  being  in  the  European  lands  where  the 
power  of  the  Roman  Empire  had  decayed.  Certain 
features  were  common  to  all — the  meeting  of  armed  men 


SOURCES  IN  EARLY  ENGLAND      13 

to  decide  public  affairs,  money  compensation  for  in- 
juries, the  grouping  of  people  into  "  hundreds,"  the 
great  council  to  aid  the  king  in  governing  appeared 
alike  among  the  Iberians  in  Spain,  the  Franks  in  Gaul, 
the  Germans  beyond  the  Rhine,  the  Anglo-Saxons  in 
England,  as  well  as  in  the  strictly  Roman  populations. 

As  our  governmental  forms  have  been  inherited  from 
England,  the  growth  of  self-government  in  that  country 
is  of  direct  interest  to  Americans.  England,  the  west- 
ern outpost  of  the  Roman  Empire,  was  invaded  and  par- 
tially settled  after  449  by  Angles,  Saxons,  and  Jutes, 
Germanic  tribes  from  the  Baltic  sea-board.  Little  is 
known  of  these  early  settlements  as  there  was  no  record 
kept  until  Augustine  brought  Christianity  to  eastern 
England  in  597.  How  much  of  the  early  British  civ- 
ilization was  purely  Saxon,  how  much  it  was  affected  by 
the  laws,  the  customs,  and  the  government  of  the  Rontan 
Empire  and  by  the  order  and  cohesive  force  of  fhe 
Church  need  not  concern  us  here.  The  general  condi- 
tion that  prevailed  is  our  chief  basis  of  interest. 

According  to  the  Anglo-Saxon  records,  the  dwellers 
in  England  lived  in  villages  and  were  divided  socially 
into  three  classes — nobles,  freemen,  and  slaves.  Each 
village  held  its  own  meeting  or  "  moot-court,"  where 
periodically  the  older  freemen  and  nobles  sat  down  in 
one  place  under  a  great  tree  or  on  a  convenient  hilltop 
to  take  counsel.  Here  disputes  were  settled,  fines  were 
laid  upon  those  guilty  of  trespass  on  another's  prop- 
erty, or  injury  to  another's  person,  matters  of  common 
interest  were  discussed  and  persons  named  to  execute 
decisions.  If  two  freemen  quarreled  over  a  horse  or  an 
ox,  the  matter  was  settled  in  the  moot  court ;  if  one  free- 
man hacked  off  another's  arm,  that  also  went  to  the 
moot  court;  if  certain  members  of  the  tribe  advocated 


14  AMERICAN  DEMOCRACY 

moving  to  another  part  of  the  country,  a  final  decision 
on  the  question  was  reached  by  the  same  grave  and  dig- 
nified body. 

Thus   the   moot   court  had   what   we   commonly   call 

legislative,  executive,   and   judicial   functions;   that  is 

it  made  laws,  carried  them  out,  and  passed  judgments. 

"  However,  there  was  no  idea  of  vote-taking  in  the  moot 

-  court.  Things  were  talked  over  and  agreed  upon  by 
mutual  assent. 

For  the  entire  tribe  there  was  a  larger  assembly 
called  the  "  folk  moot,"  to  which  delegates  went  from 
the  moot  courts  of  the  villages.  The  delegates,  usually 
called  "  ealdermen,"  were  not  formally  elected ;  they 
were  the   chief  men  of  the  villages  and  sat  in  at  the 

-  folk  moot  by  common  consent.  Any  freeman  was 
welcome  to  attend  these  meetings.  These  self-ap- 
pointed delegates  did  not  in  any  sense  represent  the 
people,  but  were  guided  by  what  they  themselves  judged 
best  rather  than  by  what  the  people  wished.  Gathered 
at  the  folk  moot  were  the  chiefs  of  the  tribes  and  the 
oldest  and  wisest  men  of  the  clans. 

As  time  went  on  the  general  gatherings  became  more 
regular  and  more  dignified.  Soon,  too,  the  meetings 
began  to  develop  a  more  or  less  set  form  of  procedure, 
especially  after  churchmen  became  regular  attendants. 
A  folk-moot  must  have  presented  a  remarkable  scene. 
Besides  the  mitered  bishops,  there  were  present  long- 
bearded  nobles  clad  in  rich  garments  and  decked  out  in 
barbaric  ornaments,  arm-bands  and  chains  made  of 
rings  of  gold.  Presiding  over  all  was  the  chief,  or  king 
of  all  the  tribes,  the  most  splendidly  dressed  and  dig- 
nified man  present.  In  this  great  assembly,  matters  of 
utmost  importance  were  discussed,  such  as  the  election 
of  a  king,  or  a  decision  to  make  war  on  another  tribe. 


SOURCES  IN  EARLY  ENGLAND      15 

Though  the  king  was  usually  a  member  of  the  royal 
family,  he  was  not  secure  in  his  office  until  he  had  been 
confirmed  by  the  acclamations  of  the  folk  moot.  More- 
over, though  the  eldest  son  of  the  king  usually  suc- 
ceeded to  the  throne,  if  it  was  considered  that  he  was 
unworthy  in  person,  in  mind,  in  dignity,  or  in  courage, 
the  folk  moot  might  select  a  younger  member  of  the 
family.  In  some  cases  the  assembly  even  ignored  the 
royal  descent  altogether  and  gave  the  crown  to  a  power- 
ful and  influential  noble  better  fitted  to  be  chief  of  the 
tribe. 

After  the  folk  moot  had  come  together  for  an  elec- 
tion, the  candidate's  name  was  proposed,  and  if  it  was 
satisfactory,  he  was  acclaimed  the  choice  by  shouting 
and  the  striking  together  of  martial  arms.  If  the  re- 
sponse was  sufficiently  lusty,  the  candidate  was  pro- 
claimed king.  If,  however,  there  were  murmurs  oi  dis- 
sent — ominous  negative  sounds  —  the  election  was  not 
valid  and  it  was  necessary  either  to  wait  for  a  more 
unified  consent  or  to  name  another  candidate.  Only 
in  cases  of  extreme  disagreement,  because  of  rival  claim- 
ants, was  it  necessary  to  set  up  a  second  candidate. 
It  is  worthy  of  note  that  the  candidate  who  was  on  the 
ground  had  a  better  chance  of  being  named  king  than 
one  who  was  not  present. 

The  early  English  did  not  feel  any  obligation  to  pay 
taxes  to  support  a  king's  estate,  though  they  were 
willing  to  help  him  with  life  and  money  when  they  were 
defending  themselves  and  their  homes  under  the  king's 
leadership.  They  had  no  idea  of  supporting  the  king 
because  of  his  kingship.  As  king  he  was  simply  the 
richest  and  most  powerful  noble  among  them  and  was 
supposed,  in  the  language  of  the  time,  "  to  live  of  his 
own."     In   fact,   the  question  of   taxation   to   support 


16  AMERICAN  DEMOCRACY 

the  government  in  any  form,  a  question  that  has  vexed 
the  world  for  so  many  centuries,  was  not  one  of  the 
troubles  of  the  early  Saxons. 

In  the  course  of  time  the  Saxons  in  England  began 
to  be  harassed  by  the  Danes,  sea-rovers  of  their  own 
kin,  who  would  come  down  suddenly  on  the  coast  towns 
and  the  river  villages  in  their  high-prowed  ships  and 
carry  off  crops,  flocks,  and  women.     These  raids  caused 

^  the  Saxon  kingdoms  in  829  to  unite  into  a  more  or  less 
unified  league,  with  Egbert,  King  of  the  West  Saxons, 
as  the  overlord  of  the  various  tribes.  Egbert  took  the 
title  of  King  of  the  Angles,  and  the  country  began  to 
be  known  as  "  Angle-land." 

Sometime  during  the  earlier  years  of  the  Saxon  rule 
in  England,  the  large  council  of  the  kingdom  came  to 
be  called  the  "  Witan  "  or  Assembly  of  the  Wise  Men. 
It  was  in  reality  the  beginning  of  the  King's  Council  or 
"  Curia  Regis,"  as  it  was  designated  in  Norman  times. 

-  The  Witan  assisted  the  King  by  approving  laws  pro- 
posed by  him  or  by  its  own  members,  tried  criminal 
and  civil  cases  of  importance,  decided  questions  of  war 

•  and  peace,  and  named  the  successors  to  the  throne.     At 

*  first  there  seems  to  have  been  no  formal  "  making  "  of 
laws.     The  Saxons  were  guided  to  a  large  degree  by 

.  unwritten  laws  which  resulted  from  customs  and  usage 
and  which  were  enforced,  if  at  all,  by  the  people  them- 
selves. After  a  time  some  laws  were  written  down  and 
applied  to  all  parts  of  the  kingdom. 

As  the  ofllce  of  the  chief  king  of  Angle-land  grew 
in  importance,  the  carrying  out  of  the  king's  work  was 
left  to  the  "  shire  reeve,"  later  known  as  the  sheriff". 
One  of  his  chief  duties  was  the  preserving  of  "  the  king's 
peace,"  a  special  kind  of  peace  by  which  the  king  and 
his  officers,  the  king's  house,  and  the  king's  highway 


SOURCES  IN  EARLY  ENGLAND  17 

were  kept  free  from  disturbance  or  attack.  The  shire 
reeve  was  frequently  obnoxious  to  the  people  as  is 
indicated  by  the  popularity  of  the  Robin  Hood  tales  and 
the  ballads  in  which  the  king's  sheriff  usually  suffered 
humiliation. 

THE    SAXON    KINGS 

Alfred,  [871-901]  England's  greatest  ruler,  was 
acknowledged  king  by  all  the  English.  He  tried  to 
make  the  laws  of  the  kingdom  conform  to  the  precepts 
of  the  Ten  Commandments.  He  encouraged  education  ^ 
and  strove  to  bring  about  a  better  standard  of  living 
among  his  people.  During  this  reign  England  contin- 
ued to  be  attacked  by  the  Danes,  and  to  buy  them  off. 
King  Alfred  caused  the  first  general  tax  to  be  laid  on  the 
English  in  the  form  of  "  Danegeld,"  which  literally  was, 
as  the  name  implies,  gold  for  the  Dane.  That  tax, 
once  levied,  was  not  remitted  even  after  all  danger 
from  the  Danes  had  long  passed.  When  it  was 
finally  removed,  another  general  tax  at  once  took  its 
place. 

The  last  Saxon  king  to  hold  tire  throne  was  Edward 
the  Confessor.  He  tried  to  complete  the  work  begun 
by  Alfred  and  to  set  up  an  orderly  code  of  laws  which 
would  establish  justice  to  all  men.  Later,  in  Norman 
times,  the  people  constantly  besought  their  kings  to 
restore  the  "  good  laws  of  Edward  "  that  the  kingdom 
might  be  brought  back  to  the  happy  state  that  it  had 
enjoyed  in  the  days  of  the  Confessor. 

The  earlier  kings,  not  only  of  England,  but  of  other 
countries,  were  not  mere  tyrants  who  seized  power  and 
kept  it ;  they  often  came  to  their  high  office  because  the 
people  wished  to  have  a  strong  protector  to  look  after 
their  interests,  which  were  often  purely  selfish.     Kings 


18  AMERICAN  DEMOCRACY 

were  kings  because  of  personal  strength  and  fitness. 
Such  a  thing  as  a  lazy  king  could  not  exist.  After  the 
manner  of  Christian  usage,  the  Saxon  king  at  his  coro- 
nation took  a  three-fold  oath,  promising  peace  to  the 
Church,  protection  from  violence  to  all  men,  and  mercy 
and  justice  in  his  judgments.  If  he  violated  this  oath 
or  the  customs  of  the  country,  the  people  attacked  his 
person.  Lacking  any  machinery  for  impeachment,  the 
only  recourse  the  people  had  was  to  cast  the  king  into 
prison  or  to  put  him  to  death. 

Saxon  England  contributed  a  large  measure  to  mod- 
ern, vigorous  local  self-government.  As  the  local  unit 
is  the  training  school  for  democratic  government,  it  is 
easy  to  see  how  the  American  practice  of  democracy  has 
descended  in  a  perceivable  line  from  the  days  of  the 
moot  court,  the  folk  moot,  and  the  Witan  of  Saxon 
England.  While  for  many  centuries  after  Parliament 
was  established,  the  bulk  of  freemen  had  very  little  to 
do  with  the  national  government,  the  practice  of  local 
self-government  was  never  given  up  in  England.  It 
was  the  practice  of  local  government  which  finally 
gained  suffrage  for  all  Englishmen,  when  the  inhabi- 
tants of  the  great  manufacturing  cities  realized  their 
strength  and  insisted  upon  political  justice. 

At  the  end  of  the  Saxon  period  there  was  no  fixed 
form  of  government.  What  there  was  of  regular 
method  was  largely  unconscious.  While  it  is  true  that 
Alfred  purposefully  tried  to  bring  the  laws  of  England 
into  conformity  with  Christian  principles  and  that  the 
bishops  of  the  Church  directly  sought  to  maintain  peace 
and  order,  on  the  whole,  the  development  of  law  was 
largely  the  result  of  circumstances  and  the  force  of 
things  as  they  were. 

Loyalty   in   Saxon   times   was   mainly   a   matter   of 


SOURCES  IN  EARLY  ENGLAND  19 

devotion  to  the  person  of  the  king.  A  king  of  a  large 
and  generous  personality  strengthened  the  nation  be- 
cause the  people  were  proud  of  him  and  in  consequence 
came  to  have  more  respect  for  the  country  over  which 
he  ruled;  but  the  idea  of  nationality  did  not  develop 
until  nearly  one  thousand  years  later. 

NORMAN    ENGLAND 

In  1066  the  distinctly  Saxon  period  in  England  wa? 
closed  by  the  Norman  Conquest  when  the  throne  was 
seized  by  William,  Duke  of  Normandy.  William  the 
Conqueror  crushed  Saxon  England  beneath  his  heel. 
He  brought  over  with  him  hundreds  of  Norman-French 
barons,  knights,  churchmen,  hangers-on,  and  adventur- 
ers. These  French-speaking  foreigners  formed  the 
upper  layer  of  society,  the  Saxons  being  reduced,  except 
in  the  case  of  a  few  powerful  nobles,  to  a  menial  con- 
dition. 

Under  William  the  Norman,  the  government  of  Eng- 
land was  centered  in  the  hands  of  the  King,  and  for 
a  time,  it  looked  as  though  the  practice  of  popular 
government  would  be  entirely  forgotten.  But  fortu- 
nately that  was  not  the  case,  for  it  turned  out  that 
while  the  Norman  Conquest  strengthened  the  central 
government  on  the  one  hand,  it  did  not  break  down 
local  government  on  the  other.  In  fact,  the  two  worked 
together  in  such  a  way  as  to  lead  to  the  final  establish- 
ment of  substantial  government  by  the  people.    ' 

William  introduced  a  modified  form  of  the  continental 
feudal  system.  ,  Under  that  system  each  noble  had  his 
own  subjects  or  retainers  who  owed  entire  allegiance  to 
their  lord.  The  King  was  merely  the  most  powerful  of 
the  great  nobles,  who  supported  him  with  arms  and  men 
as  they  wished  to.     The  peopli^ /followed  their  lord  or 


20  AMERICAN  DExMOCRACY 

baron,  not  the  King.  When  William  came  to  England 
he  made  the  people  swear  allegiance  directly  to  him, 
not  to  the  feudal  barons.  This  was  the  first  clear 
putting  forth  of  the  principle  that  the  King  was  the 
source  of  the  law.  Up  to  that  time  it  had  been  con- 
ceded tacitly  that  the  people  were  the  source  of  law. 
But  though  William  made  himself  the  law-giver,  he 
continued  the  established  custom  of  calling  a  great 
council  of  the  realm,  a  body  similar  in  many  ways  to  the 
Saxon  Witan.  From  this  great  council,  called  the 
"  Curia  Regis  "  or  "  Council  of  the  King,"  has  come 
nearly  all  the  English  governmental  bodies,  including 
Parliament  —  Lords  and  Commons  —  the  King's  Court, 
the  Star  Chamber  Court,  and  finally  the  Cabinet — the 
present  "  government  "  of  England. 

STRUGGLE    BETWEEN    KINGS    AND    BARONS 

The  four  hundred  years  that  followed  the  Norman 
Conquest,  from  1066  to  1485,  saw  the  beginnings  of 
nearly  all  the  English  governmental  forms.  The  entire 
period  is  marked  by  the  struggle  of  three  elements  — 
the  king,  nobles,  the  freemen, —  to  gain  power,  recogni- 
tion, or  civil  rights.  The  contest  was  often  between  the 
king  and  nobles.  When  the  king  was  weak,  the  barons 
grew  strong.  The  people  sometimes  sided  with  the 
king,  and  sometimes  with  the  barons,  or  strove  against 
either  or  both.  The  people,  on  the  whole,  received  more 
justice  from  the  king  than  from  the  barons,  probably 
because  the  king  was  removed  from  close  contact  with 
the  mass  of  his  subjects,  while  the  barons,  living  close  to 
the  people,  were  able  to  make  their  daily  lives  wretched. 

The  struggle  toward  government  by  the  people  is 
marked  by  concessions  made  by  various  kings.  Henry 
I  (1100-1135)  granted  a  "  Charter  of  Liberties  "  to  the 


SOURCES  IN  EARLY  ENGLAND  21 

English  people.  This  charter  was  nothing  more  than  a 
re-affirming  of  the  Good  Laws  of  Edward,  guarantee- 
ing certain  civil  rights  to  all  English  freemen. 

To  Henrj  II  (1154-1189)  may  be  credited  the  be-, 
ginning  of  the  English  jury  system.  The  King  inaug- 
urated the  custom  of  summoning  certain  "  good  and 
judicious  "  men  of  the  neighborhood  where  a  crime  had 
been  committed  or  a  dispute  had  arisen  to  advise  with 
him  concerning  the  case.  Curiously  enough,  the  men 
who  knew  most  about  the  case  were  those  especially 
sought  as  jurors.  In  the  course  of  time,  a  distinction 
was  made  between  the  "grand  jury,"  which  investi- 
gates cases  and  the  "  petit  jury,"  which  consists  of  the 
twelve  men  who  try  cases. 

John,  the  weakest  and  meanest  of  English  kings, 
came  to  the  throne  in  1199.  The  barons,  made  strong 
by  the  King's  weakness,  waged  incessant  war  upon  him, 
until  in  1215,  led  by  Stephen  Langton,  the  Archbishop 
of  Canterbury,  they  forced  John  to  sign  the  Magna 
Charta,  the  Great  Charter  of  English  liberties.. 

This  famous  document  was  not  a  setting  forth  of  any 
new  rights,  but  merely  a  promise  to  carry  out  law  which 
had  been  long  in  force.  The  two  most  important  provi- 
sions of  Magna  Charta  are  first,  that  the  king  may 
not  punish  or  imprison  his  subjects  as  he  pleases,  but 
that  each  freeman  of  England  shall  be  judged  by  his 
equals;  and  second,  that  the  king  may  not  levy  taxes 
without  the  consent  of  the  bishops,  earls,  and  lesser 
barons.  The  full  force  of  the  second  clause  was  not  ap- 
preciated in  1215,  but  in  after  years  it  became  a  strong 
weapon  in  the  hands  of  Parliament. 

It  would  be  untruthful  to  say  that  the  barons  and 
prelates,  who  coerced  John  at  Runnymeade,  were  act- 
ing on  purely  unselfish  motives  with  the  thought  of  the 


22 


AMERICAN  DEMOCRACY 


rights  of  all  men  in  their  minds  and  with  a  conscious 
eye  on  future  ages.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  they  were  not 
setting  themselves  up  as  champions  of  all  Englishmen; 
they  were  merely  seeking  to  secure  for  themselves  cer- 
tain inherited  privileges  which  John  sought  to  take 
away.  But  they  strengthened  their  cause  by  speaking 
for  all  the  freemen  of  the  nation,  probably  recognizing 
the  added  power  that  such  a  backing  gave  them. 


:^t*i*Su, 


NuUus  liber  homo  capiatur,  vel  imprisonetur,  aut  dissaisiatur,  aut  utlagetur, 
No  free  man  shall  be  taken,  or  imprisoned^  or  dispossessed,  or  outlawed, 


www  WBl 


i^-^iti^iCTilr 


aut  exuletur,  aut  aliquo  modo  destruatur,  nee  super  eum  ibimus  nee  super 
or  banished,  or  in  any  way  destroyed,  nor  will  we  go  upon  him  nor  upon 


eum  mittemus,  nisi  per  legale  judicium  parium  suorum  vel  per  legem  terrae. 
him  send,  except  by  the  legal  judgment  of  his  peers  or  by  the  law  of  the  land. 


Nulli  vendemus,  nulli  negabimus,  aut  differemus,  rectum  aut  justiciam. 
To  no  one  will  we  sell,  to  no  one  will  we  deny  or  delay,  right  or  justice. 
Courtesy  of  Allj^n  and  Bacon 

Sections  39  and  40  of  Magna  Charta 
The  bars  are  facsimiles  of  the  writing  in  the  charter,  with  the 
curious  abbreviations  of  the  medieval  Latin.     Below  each  line  is 
given  the  Latin  in  full  with  a  translation. 


In  the  reign  of  Henry  III  (1216^1272),  which  was 
marked  by  a  continued  struggle  between  the  King  and 
the  barons,  the  larger  King's  Council  began  to  be  called 
"  Parliament."  Henry  required  much  money  and  spent 
it  lavishly.  He  frequently  renewed,  and  as  promptly 
broke.  Magna  Charta.  The  barons  found  a  champion 
in  the  King's  brother-in-law,  Simon  de  Montfort,  Earl 


SOURCES  IN  EARLY  ENGLAND      23 

of  Leicester,  one  of  the  noblest  figures  in  English  his- 
tory. Under  his  bold  leadership  they  forced  Henry, 
by  the  "  Provisions  of  Oxford,"  to  employ  a  Council 
to  advise  him,  to  have  three  Parliaments  a  year,  and 
to  compel  the  three  chief  officers  of  the  government  — 
the  Chief  Justice,  the  Chancellor,  and  the  Treasurer  — 
to  make  a  yearly  account  to  the  Council,  by  whom  they 
were  appointed. 

BEGINNINGS    OF    PARLIAMENT 

Yet  in  spite  of  these  Provisions  of  Oxford,  Henry  HI 
refused  to  rule  according  to  law,  and  when  in  1265  he 
again  demanded  money  to  carry  on  a  war  of  conquest, 
the  barons,  led  by  Earl  Simon,  made  war  upon  the 
King  and  summoned  a  Parliament  in  his  name.  Earl 
Simon  invited  not  only  the  barons  and  bishops  who  had 
formerly  met  with  the  King's  Great  Council,  but  he  also 
called  to  meet  with  this  assembly  two  burgesses  elected 
from  each  borough  and  two  knights  from  each  shire. 
These  "  commoners  "  were  invited  to  sit  in  with  the 
barons  that  they  might  help  to  devise  methods  of  curb- 
ing the  King  and  of  forcing  his  ministers  to  render  an 
account  of  their  stewardship,  that  is  to  be  "  respon- 
sible "  for  their  ofl^cial  acts. 

This  date,  1265,  is  a  great  landmark  in  English  his- 
tory. That  first  meeting,  where  sat  elected  knight 
and  burgess,  was  the  shadowy  beginning  of  the  House 
of  Commons,  the  chief  institution  through  which  Eng- 
lish constitutional  government  has  been  developed. 
But  the  intrepid  Earl  Simon,  like  many  another  famous 
leader,  failed  to  keep  his  party  together,  and  in  a  battle 
against  the  King's  army  the  great  baron  was  slain.  He 
died  fighting  bravely  with  the  cry  on  his  lips,  "  It's 
God's  grace." 


24  AMERICAN  DEMOCRACY 

Edward  I  succeeded  to  his  father's  troubles,  but  hav- 
ing been  his  great  uncle's  pupil,  he  used  the  people  to 
help  him  against  the  nobles,  and  in  1295  he  assembled 
the  first  real  English  Parliament,  maintaining  that  he 
took  this  action  because  "  what  concerned  all  should 
be  approved  by  all." 

In  Edward's  reign  it  became  a  fixed  custom  for  the 
Parliament  to  consent  to  taxes  before  they  could  be 
imposed.  Though  this  consent  was  largely  a  formal 
matter,  it  was  a  way  of  controlling  the  King.  From 
this  beginning  came  the  present  right  of  the  "  popular  " 
branch  of  government  to  control  taxes. 

Richard  II  (1377-1399)  had  an  unquiet  reign,  one 
of  the  most  notable  features  of  which  was  the  Peasant's 
Revolt  (1381),  or  as  it  is  commonly  called,  Wat 
Tyler's  Rebellion.  This  insurrection  of  the  common 
people  was  caused  by  the  imposition  of  an  unjust  and 
very  burdensome  poll-tax.  The  revolt  was  put  down 
with  great  cruelty  after  the  peasants  had  been  given 
little  charters  insuring  them  redress  and  removal  of  the 
tax.  The  faithless  Richard  showed  himself  such  an  un- 
worthy King  that  when  Henry  IV,  the  great  Earl  of 
Lancaster,  seized  the  throne.  Parliament  readily  con- 
firmed the  usurper's  claim. 

CONSTITUTIONAL    GROWTH 

With  the  reign  of  Henry  IV  came  a  period  of  rapid 
political  development,  which  was  largely  due  to  the  fact 
that  Henry  IV  had  received  the  crown  from  Parliament 
and  as  a  consequence  was  forced  to  rule  strictly  by  law. 
He  coaxed  and  wheedled  his  Parliaments  into  doing  as 
he  wished  them  to  and  by  his  ability  as  a  statesman 
kept  the  royal  seat.  Parliamentary  control  extended 
to  the  ministers  of  the  King  who  were  named  by  Parlia- 


SOURCES  IN  EARLY  ENGLAND      25 

ment  and  forced  to  give  a  strict  account  of  their  doings. 
In  this  reign  no  taxes  were  granted  without  the  consent 
of  Parliament,  "  granted  by  the  commons  and  agreed 
to  by  the  Lords,"  being  the  phrase  formally  used  in  the 
money-granting  statutes. 

While  Parliament  was  a  taxing  body  from  the  "first, 
its  power  to  carry  out  laws  grew  with  the  attempts  to 
exercise  some  sort  of  control  over  the  collection  and 
expending  of  taxes ;  in  short,  from  a  desire  on  the  part 
of  Parliament  to  insure  honesty  and  accuracy,  that  is, 
to  fix  "  responsibility  "  in  the  spending  of  public  money. 

In  Norman  times  Parliament  began  to  make  laws 
in  a  simple  way  as  a  result  of  its  habit  of  demanding  that 
the  king  right  some  wrong  or  grant  some  definite  con- 
cession in  return  for  its  giving  consent  to  taxes ;  to  use 
the  expression  thereafter  common  in  English  and  Amer- 
ican governmental  aff^airs,  they  demanded  a  "  redress  of 
grievances."  The  "  grievances  "  were  at  first  some  in- 
fringement of  the  ancient  rights  of  Englishmen,  or  the 
failure  of  the  king  to  keep  former  promises  or  to  cause 
his  ministers  to  give  an  account  of  their  spendings  of 
public  money.  Later  they  included  requests  for  new 
arrangements  that  Parliament  wished  to  have  go  into 
effect.  These  demands  were  presented  in  the  form  of 
"  petitions,"  in  the  framing  of  which  the  Commons  had 
recourse  to  judges  and  lawyers,  who  sometimes  changed 
the  meaning  or  made  substantial  omissions.  The  diffi- 
culty in  securing  desired  legislation  caused  the  intro- 
duction of  "  bills,"  which  when  completed  and  approved 
by  Commons,  Lords,  and  King,  became  "  statutes " 
or  the  laws  of  the  kingdom.    ^ 

The  Commons  could  approach  the  King  by  means  of 
the  speaker  of  the  House ;  the  individual  Lords  were  al- 
ways entitled  to  admission  to  the  royal  presence.     Dur- 


26  AMERICAN  DEMOCRACY 

ing  the  Lancastrian  period,  the  Commons  themselves 
elected  their  speaker,  but  the  tyrannical  Tudors  took 
the  appointment  of  the  speaker  into  their  own  hands. 

When  it  was  finally  recognized  that  Parliament  was 
the  source  of  law,  the  King  thought  up  new  ways  of 
getting  what  he  wanted.  For  instance,  toward  the 
close  of  the  session  he  would  bring  in  all  at  once  a 
number  of  matters  that  he  wished  to  have  acted  upon. 
Because  of  this  crowding  of  the  final  sittings,  the  Com- 
mons at  one  time  respectfully  begged  Henry  IV  to  re- 
frain from  this  practice  as  they  wished  for  an  oppor- 
tunity to  have  "  good  advice  "  before  replying  to  "  most 
important  matters." 

Impeachment  was  introduced  when  Edward  Ill's  most 
powerful  ministers  were  tried  by  the  House  of  Lords. 
During  the  same  reign,  the  auditing  of  accounts  be- 
came a  national  policy.  All  this  time  there  had  been 
accumulating  certain  definite  "privileges"  enjoyed  by 
the  members  of  Parliament.  The  chief  of  these  were, 
first,  that  the  speaker  of  the  Commons  should  have 
access  to  the  King  "  to  petition,  to  counsel,  or  to  remon- 
strate "  with  him ;  second,  that  the  members  should  be 
safe  from  arrest  or  molestation  during  a  session  of  Par- 
liament, and  in  coming  to  and  going  from  the  assembly ; 
third,  and  most  important  of  all,  that  members  should 
be  allowed  freed.om  of  speech.  This  last  privilege  was 
a  decisive  step  toward  democracy,  for  when  freedom  of 
speech  was  conceded  by  a  King,  he  acknowledged  a 
power  superior  to  himself.  When  they  had  become  fully 
established  any  infringement  of  these  privileges  was 
met  by  angry  cries  of  "  privilege !  "  from  the  benches 
of  the  Commons. 

In  the  course  of  time  it  became  necessary  that  the 
members  of  Parliament  should  be  men  of  independent 


SOURCES  IN  EARLY  ENGLAND  27 

means,  until  finally,  property  qualification  kept  all  but 
landed  gentlemen  out  of  the  Commons.  In  the  four- 
teenth century,  sheriffs  and  lawyers  were  excluded  from 
Parliament  as  being  specialists  and,  therefore,  not  in- 
terested in  the  affairs  of  the  community! 

SUFFRAGE    AND    MAJORITY    RULE 

After  the  House  of  Commons  was  established,  the 
method  of  election  became  fixed.  At  first  everybody 
was  allowed  to  vote ;  villagers,  tenant-farmers,  small 
squires,  shop-keepers,  trades-people,  and  other  towns- 
folk standing  about  "  acclaimed  "  the  nomination  and 
thus  made  an  election.  If  anyone  present  was  strong 
enough  and  bold  enough  to  object,  other  names  were 
proposed.  This  went  on  for  centuries  until  there  be- 
gan to  be  distinct  classes  made  up  of  rich  and  poor. 
The  Peasant's  Revolt  was  said  by  the  wealthy  classes  to 
show  the  "  insolent  arrogance  "  of  the  peasant  class, 
"  everyone  of  whom  pretended  to  a  voice  equivalent 
with  the  most  worthy  knight  and  squire." 

To  check  this  "  arrogance  "  on  the  part  of  the  peo- 
ple, in  1429  the  Commons  passed  a  seemingly  harmless 
law,  which  restricted  the  privilege  of  voting  to  those 
who  had  a  free  tenement  to  the  value  of  forty  shillings  a 
year.  Thus,  at  one  stroke,  after  Parliament  had  been 
in  existence  for  one  hundred  and  fifty  years,  the  greater 
part  of  the  freemen  of  England  were  denied  the  priv- 
ilege of  electing  representatives.  Thereafter  a  very 
small  class  claimed  that  political  privilege  as  a  political 
right.  It  was  not  until  1885,  four  hundred  and  fifty- 
six  years  later,  that  the  wrong  done  by  the  statute  of 
1429  was  removed  from  the  majority  of  the  English 
people. 

In  the  same  statute,  the  principle  of  majority  rule 


28  AMERICAN  DEMOCRACY 

was  set  forth  as  law  for  the  first  time  in  English  his- 
tory. Up  to  this  time,  the  practice  of  "  general  con- 
sent," which  survives  in  the  jury  system  to-day,  had 
been  in  use.  By  the  statute  of  1429  the  men  to  be  sent 
to  Parliament  were  to  be  "  such  as  have  the  greatest 
number  of  them  that  may  expend  forty  shillings  a 
year  ";  that  is,  those  candidates  who  had  the  majority 
of  votes  for  the  position. 

THE    KINGS    AND    TAXES 

As  the  power  of  Parliament  developed,  the  early 
English  Kings  found  many  ways  of  overstepping  their 
legal  rights  by  outgeneraling  their  assemblies,  especially 
in  getting  money  by  special  taxes  without  consulting 
Parliament.  Taxes  had  been  imposed  on  the  English 
people  from  the  days  of  the  Danegeld.  When  that  tax 
passed  out,  other  legal  "  ancient  aids,  tasks,  and 
prizes  "  were  imposed  to  fill  the  royal  treasury.  Among 
these  was  "  scutage,"  at  first  a  tax  paid  for  exemption 
from  bearing  arms,  and  "  tonnage  and  poundage,"  an 
import  tax  on  wine,  beer,  and  other  materials.  Other 
sources  of  revenue  were  "  forced  loans,"  which  were  paid 
back  at  the  King's  leisure,  if  at  all,  and  "  benevolences," 
or  solicited  donations  of  large  sums  of  money.  Queen 
Elizabeth  added  "  ship  money,"  a  tax  laid  on  coast 
towns  when  England  was  threatened  by  the  Spanish 
Armada.  These  irregular  taxes  the  King  levied  when- 
ever he  needed  money. 

After  the  laws  agreed  to  by  King,  Lords,  and  Com- 
mons came  to  be  called  "  statutes,"  the  King  made  use 
of  a  new  method  of  over-riding  Parliament.  He  would 
simply  "  annul  "  the  statutes  by  wiping  all  obnoxious 
new  laws  off  the  slate  almost  as  soon  as  Parliament  had 
gone  home.     He  would  then  notify  the  sheriff  of  each 


SOURCES  IN  EARLY  ENGLAND      29 

county  that  such  statutes  were  null  and  void.  And  with 
the  consent  of  his  privy  council,  he  would  enact  such 
"  ordinances "  or  "  orders  in  council "  as  he  chose, 
under  pretended  or  actual  immediate  necessity.  The 
members  of  Parliament,  having  gone  home,  were  of 
course  forced  to  wait  for  "  redress  of  grievances  "  until 
the  King  found  it  necessary  to  call  them  together  again. 

During  all  this  time,  the  courts  had  been  taking  form. 
One,  the  Star  Chamber  Court,  was  a  secret  court  which 
passed  judgment  without  jury  or  witnesses.  It  was 
first  set  up  as  a  means  of  restoring  order  and  establish- 
ing authority  —  a  sort  of  court  of  "  martial  law." 
This  court,  under  the  Tudors  and  the  Stuarts,  grew 
into  a  notorious  machine  of  ruthless  oppression  from 
which  no  subject  was  safe. 

By  the  end  of  the  Lancastrian  period,  that  is  about 
1400,  the  courts,  higher  and  lower,  had  been  set  up  and 
were  regularly  employed.  The  rights  of  Parliament 
had  also  become  fixed.  It  was  Parliament's  right  to  de- 
pose the  King,  to  confirm  a  candidate  for  the  kingship, 
and  to  control  the  King  by  controlling  his  ministers. 
To  the  Commons  had  been  given  the  riglit  to  hold  the 
pursestrings,  that  is,  to  grant  the  taxes.  .  "As  the  King 
could  not  support  his  state  without  a  revenue,  this  priv- 
ilege of  voting  taxes  kept  an  effective  chock  on  the  rulor. 
But  best  of  all,  the  right  of  a  speedy  trial  by  jury  had 
become  clearly  a  right  of  all  English  freemen. 

EISE    OF    THE    COMMON    PEOPLE 

By  this  time  a  great  change  had  come  over  the  mass 
of  the  people.  After  the  Black  Death,  a  terrible  plague 
which  fell  upon  all  Europe  in  the  middle  of  the  14th 
century,  the  condition  of  the  poorer  classes  had  greatly 
improved.     The  scarcity  of  laborers  gradually  allowed 


so  AMERICAN  DEMOCRACY 

them  to  exchange  their  services  for  money.  The  lower 
classes,  serfs  and  peasants,  began  to  realize  the  in- 
justice done  them  and  broke  out  into  several  well-de- 
veloped revolts.  By  1450,  serfdom  had  passed  from 
England  forever  and  all  English  men  were  legally  secure 
in  the  rights  of  Magna  Charta. 

The  improvement  in  the  condition  of  the  people  and 
the  growth  of  the  power  of  Parliament  was  checked 
in  the  fifteenth  century  by  the  devastations  of  civil 
war,  in  which  for  thirty  years  the  White  Rose  of  York 
strove  with  the  Red  Rose  of  Lancaster  for  the  throne 
of  England.  During  this  period  —  as  was  inevitable 
—  Parliament,  having  lost  its  great  leaders,  was  shorn 
of  its  power,  though  it  still  retained  its  formal  func- 
tions. By  1485,  when  Henry  VII,  the  first  Tudor 
king,  came  to  the  throne  and  thus  ended  the  Wars  of 
the  Roses,  Parliament  had  ceased  to  be  the  vigorous 
governmental  body  of  a  century  earlier.  It  was  not 
long  until  it  became  the  ready  tool  of  the  Tudor  sov- 
ereign. Then  followed  the  period  of  the  Reformation, 
that  great  religious  upheaval  which  set  men  at  cross 
purposes  for  long  and  weary  years  and  caused  them 
to  neglect  political  privileges  in  the  crucial  struggle 
for  religious  freedom. 

But  though  the  English  constitution  was  a  dead  letter 
during  the  Tudor  period,  it  still  existed  in  form  and 
was  never  wholly  disregarded,  so  that  when  Parliament 
in  the  days  of  the  Stuart  kings  roused  itself  to  action, 
this  unwritten  constitution  was  evoked  to  help  English- 
men get  back  the  rights  that  had  been  acknowledged 
in  the  days  of  Alfred  and  of  Edward  the  Confessor,  that 
had  been  reaffirmed  by  John,  and  that  had  taken  legal 
form  and  become  well-established  precedent  before  the 
Wars   of  the  Roses.     Piece  by  piece  during  Norman. 


SOURCES  IN  EARLY  ENGLAND 


31 


times  the  English  people  had  set  up  the  machinery  of 
government  that  would  legally  secure  to  them  the 
rights  that  at  an  earlier  period  had  been  recognized  by 
common  usage;  step  by  step  they  had  moved  toward 
surer  justice,  although  the  successful  working  out  of 
their  almost  unconsciously  well-made  plans  was  deferred 
for  many  years. 


Officers  Receiving  axd  Weighing  Coik  at 

THE  ExCHEftUEB,  A.  D.  1130-1174 

MS.  Trin.  Coll.  Camb.  B.  17,   1 


CHAPTER  II 

AMERICA'S    GOVERNMENTAL    INHERITANCE 
FROM  MODERN  ENGLAND 

We  have  advanced  by  falling  back  on  a  more  ancient  state  of 
things;  we  have  reformed  by  calling  to  life  again  the  institutions 
of  earlier  and  ruder  times,  by  setting  ourselves  free  from  the 
slavish  subtleties  of  Norman  lawyers,  by  casting  aside  as  an 
accursed  thing  the  innovations  of  Tudor  tyranny  and  Stuart  usur- 
pation. 

"The  Growth  of  the  English  Constitution,"  E.  A.  Freeman. 

THE    TUDOR    DESPOTS 

Henry  VII,  the  first  Tudor  King,  was  crowned 
on  Bosworth  Field  in  1485.  The  Tudor  period  marks 
the  beginning  of  modern  England.  The  Wars  of  the 
Roses  had  settled  the  question  of  feudalism  forever, 
most  of  the  great  barons  of  the  Red  and  the  White 
Rose  having  been  killed  on  the  battle-field.  For  a  cen- 
tury thereafter,  the  Tudor  sovereigns  ruled  as  they 
pleased. 

The  Tudor  period  is  noted  for  the  Protestant  Refor- 
mation, for  the  rise  of  England  in  power,  for  great 
changes  in  the  economic  condition  of  the  people,  and, 
most  of  all,  for  the  age  of  Elizabethan  literature. 
Though  the  iron-handed  Tudors  cared  little  for  the 
welfare  of  the  people,  they  were  wise  enough  to  rule 
under  legal  forms.  They  never  neglected  to  have  Par- 
liament sanction  all  their  acts,  but  they  were  very  care- 
ful about  the  selection  of  Parliament.  The  matter  of 
controlling  parliamentary  elections  after  the  Wars  of 

32 


HELPS  FROM  MODERN  ENGLAND  33 

the  Roses  was  easy.  The  Tudors  adopted  various 
methods  of  bribery  that  continued  to  be  used  in  Eng- 
land more  or  less  regularly  up  to  the  end  of  the  eigh- 
teenth century. 

Henry  VII  was  a  miser  and  a  tyrant  who  filled  his 
treasury  by  a  most  ingenious  system  of  taxes  and  fines. 
Neither  the  rich  nor  the  poor  escaped  his  net.  He 
enlarged  and  perfected  the  secret  Star  Chamber  Court 
which  he  used  to  seek  out  and  try  persons  with  whom  he 
was  displeased  or  from  whom  he  wished  to  extort  money. 
Since  there  was  no  appeal  from  the  decisions  of  this 
king-made  body,  it  is  easy  to  see  how  it  became  an 
instrument  of  tyranny  in  the  hands  of  a  despotic  ruler. 
Henry  used  it  to  assist  him  in  demanding  forced  loans 
and  benevolences,  and  in  laying  wholesale  fines,  until 
he  had  amassed  the  immense  fortune  which  his  son  and 
successor,  Henry  VIII,  squandered.  After  Henry 
VII  began  to  operate  the  Star  Chamber  Court  suc- 
cessfully, he  found  Parliament  unnecessary  and  did 
not  call  that  body  at  all  during  the  last  nine  years 
of  his  reign. 

Henry  VIII  (1509-1549)  was  even  more  despotic 
than  his  father.  During  his  reign,  the  Protestant  Ref- 
ormation entered  England.  The  King  demolished  the 
monasteries,  seized  the  lands,  and  bestowed  them  upon 
his  friends  and  supporters.  In  1520,  after  an  interval 
of  five  years,  Henry  called  a  Parliament,  which  he  him- 
self had  selected.  He  kept  this  Parliament  for  seven 
years  by  the  simple  method  of  alternately  proroguing 
and  summoning  the  same  body.  It  made  Henry  not 
only  '*  Protector  and  only  Supreme  Head "  of  the 
Church,  but  also  made  it  unlawful  for  a  person  ac- 
cused of  high  treason  to  plead  in  his  own  behalf, 
and  forced  public  officials  to  take  the  Oath  of  Suprem- 


34. 


AMERICAN  DEMOCRACY 


acy  which  acknowledged  the  king  as  the  head  of  the 
Church.  But  though  Henry  VIII  ruled  most  auto- 
cratically, it  was  always  under  Parliament's  sanction. 


ii: .,M 

Trial  of  Weights  and  Measures  at  the  Exchequer,  A.  D. 
Henry  VII   (149T) 

Velustu  monumenta;  from  a  drawinrj  formerly  in  the  Harleian  Library 

"  Let  your  weights  and  measures  be  fair,  your  balance  just,  your 
bushel  and  your  pint  honest:"  one  of  the  "good  laws"  of  early 
England  which  is  not  yet  fully  realized  in  practice. 


Henry  VIII  was  follow^ed  in  consecutive  order  by 
his  son,  Edward  VI,  and  his  daughters,  Mary  and 
Elizabeth.     The    whole    period    was    one    of    religious 


HELPS  FROM  MODERN  ENGLAND  35 

persecution,  first  on  one  side,  then  on  the  other.  Re- 
ligious toleration  as  a  national  policy  was  at  the 
time  undreamed  of. 

During  the  reign  of  Elizabeth  (1558-1603),  Eng- 
land, the  little  island  kingdom,  rose  from  a  sixth  rate 
place  to  one  in  the  first  rank  among  nations.  Ih  this 
reign,  Catholics  were  excluded  from  Parliament  and  the 
seeds  of  future  political  discord  were  sown.  Elizabeth 
established  the  secret  Court  of  High  Commission  which, 
like  the  Star  Chamber  Court,  robbed  its  victims  of  trial 
by  jury  on  an  open  charge.  Thereafter  the  sover- 
eigns had  almost  absolute  power,  as  in  these  courts 
the  enemies  of  the  ruler  could  be  quietly  disposed  of. 

About  this  time  the  New  World  began  to  engage 
the  imagination  of  Englishmen  and  a  few  unsuccess- 
ful attempts  were  made  to  found  settlements  across 
the  Atlantic.  Sir  Walter  Raleigh  made  no  less  than 
three  efforts  to  found  settlements  in  Virginia,  but  did 
not  succeed  in  any  of  them. 

For  all  the  greatness  of  Elizabeth's  reign,  it  had 
its  dark  and  gloomy  side.  The  poor  suffered  terribly. 
Their  lands  were  taken  away  to  be  made  into  great 
sheep  walks  and  the  soil  of  England  passed  into  the 
hands  of  a  small  number  of  great  land  owners. 
Misery  spread  all  over  the  kingdom.  Indeed,  it  is 
recorded  that  17,000  beggars  were  executed  during 
this  reign  for  the  "  crime  "  of  being  destitute. 

THE    DIVINE    RIGHT    JAMES    I 

The  Stuart,  James  I,  succeeded  Elizabeth  in  1603. 
At  the  door  of  this  ruler,  with  his  "  Divine  Right  of 
Kings "  delusion,  may  be  laid  a  good  deal  of  the 
trouble  of  the  unhappy  Stuart  period.  James  was 
filled  with  the  idea  that  the  King,  by  the  special  pro- 


36  AMERICAN  DEMOCRACY 

/■  ^ 
/vision  of  the  Almighty,  was  the  source  of  power  from 
whom  flowed  all  law.  When  this  small-minded  King 
with  his  idea  of  Divine  Right,  found  himself  opposed 
by  an  intelligent  Parliament,  equally  firm  in  urging 
that  the  King  was  subject  to  Parliament,  a  period 
of  political  stress  followed. 

One  great  cause  of  trouble  was  the  religious  strife, 
not  oTjly  between  Catholics  and  Protestants,  but 
among  the  various  Protestant  sects.  James  made 
laws  against  the  "  dissenters  "  who  did  not  conform 
to  the  Church  of  England  —  Catholics,  Presbyterians, 
and  Puritans  alike.  In  1620,  these  harsh  measures 
drove  the  Pilgrims  to  Plymouth  Rock  ok  the  shores 
of  New  England. 

^  James  I  in  his  zeal  to  show  his  Divine  Right,  used 
the  Star  Chamber  Court  and  the  Court  of  High  Com- 
mission in  ways  that  even  Elizabeth  had  not  thought 
of.  For  seven  years,  he  summoned  no  Parliament  but 
secured  an  income  by  granting  monopolies,  and  by 
obtaining  forced  loans  and  benevolences.  He  also  sold 
peerages  and  invented  a  new  title,  that  of  baronet,  which 
he  retailed  along  with  the  title  "  Sir  "  at  one  hundred 
pounds  apiece.  He  sold  great  estates  in  Ireland  to 
absentee  landlords,  and  "  planted "  Ulster  with 
Scotchmen  and  Englishmen  who  were  willing  to  settle 
there.  Scottish  Protestants  in  large  numbers  took  ad- 
vantage of  the  grant  and  people  from  London  founded 
Londonderry.  This  was  the  beginning  of  the  "  Ulster 
Question." 

In  the  years  following  James  I's  accession  to  the 
throne,  the  first  permanent  English  colony  was  planted 
in  Virginia,  under  a  charter  granted  by  the  King  to 
the  London  Company.  At  this  point  in  the  story  of 
England's  struggle  for  popular  government,  the  center 


HELPS  FROM  MODERN  ENGLAND  37 

of  interest  for  Americans  is  transferred  to  those  Eng- 
lish colonies  that  later  became  the  United  States  of 
America.  But  a  brief  outline  of  the  constitutional  de- 
velopment as  it  continued  in  England  gives  material  for 
comparison  with  the  growth  of  democracy  in  America. 
The  entire  Stuart  period  in  England,  from  1603  to 
1683  —  including  the  period  of  the  Commonwealth  — 
was  marked  by  an  almost  constant  struggle  for  con- 
trol between  the  rulers  and  Parliament.  Religious 
persecution,  a  Civil  War,  the  migration  to  America,  an 
experimental  period  of  "  popular  "  government  known 
as  "  the  Commonwealth,"  all  contributed  to  the  final 
establishment  in  1688  of  the  principle  that  the  King 
of  England  was  subject  to  the  control  of  Parliament 

CHARLES    I    AND    PARLIAMENT 

Charles  I  (1621-1649)  had  a  pleasanter  person- 
ality than  his  father,  James  I,  but  he  was  even  more 
stubborn.  He  summarily  dismissed  his  first  Parlia- 
ment for  refusing  to  grant  him  money.  When  he  was 
finally  compelled  to  summon  them  again,  the  members 
of  Parliament,  led  by  Sir  John  Eliot,  stood  out  boldly 
against  him  and  refused  to  grant  "  tonnage  and 
poundage  " —  one  of  the  "  accustomed  dues  " —  for 
more  than  one  year  although  this  tax  had  heretofore 
been  granted  for  the  lifetime  of  the  sovereign.  At 
this,  Charles  haughtily  sent  the  members  home  and 
tried  to  get  along  by  levying  illegal  taxes,  forced 
loans,    and   benevolences. 

When,  because  of  war  in  France,  he  was  forced  to 
summon  Parliament  for  the  third  time,  the  Commons 
forced  Charles  I  to  sign  the  "  Petition  of  Right  "  before 
they  would  take  up  any  matter  of  taxation.  This 
famous  document  which  promised  freedom  from  illegal 


38  AMERICAN  DEMOCRACY 

taxation,  false  imprisonment,  and  forced  loans,  was 
really  a  revision  of  the  English  Constitution  to  date,  as 
far  as  the  personal  rights  of  Englishmen  were  con- 
cerned. Charles,  hard-pressed  for  money,  reluctantly 
signed  this  great  state  paper  amid  heartfelt  public  re- 
joicing and  Parliament  at  once  granted  the  needed  sup- 
plies. But  his  needs  having  been  attended  to,  the  faith- 
less Charles  made  no  attempt  to  keep  his  pledge  to  the 
people. 

The  next  year  found  the  treasury  again  empty  and 
the  King  as  so  often  before  was  compelled  to  summon 
Parliament.  But  finding  that  the  members  were  deter- 
mined to  keep  up  the  fight  for  constitutional  liberty, 
Charles  dissolved  Parliament  and  ruled  as  an  absolute 
monarch  for  eleven  years,  working  through  the  Star 
Chamber  Court  and  the  Court  of  High  Commission.  He 
collected  money  by  all  sorts  of  means  and  sent  a  force 
into  rebellious  Ireland  where  a  "  thorough  "  program  of 
coercion  was  carried  out  with  great  ferocity.  Charles 
I  with  even-handed  injustice  persecuted  both  the  Puri- 
tans and  'Catholics  alike,  so  that  from  1630  to  1640, 
ten  thousand  Puritans  emigrated  to  Massachusetts,  and 
in  1634,  a  large  colony  of  Catholics  founded  Maryland 
under  Lord  Baltimore. 

Finally  in  1637,  the  King  levied  "  ship  money  "  on 
all  towns,  thus  directly  violating  the  promise  given  in 
the  Petition  of  Right.  This  ship  money  was  a  tax 
formerly  levied  on  coast  towns  only.  John  Hamp- 
den, a  country  squire,  refused  to  pay  the  ship  money 
tax,  and  the  case  was  brought  to  court.  Though  seven 
of  the  twelve  judges  decided  against  Hampden,  the 
decision  had  the  force  of  a  victory  since  the  people  of 
the  kingdom  were  aroused  and  many  of  them  stood 
against  the  King. 


HELPS  FROM  MODERN  ENGLAND 


39 


Threatened  by  war  with  Scotland,  the  King  again 
summoned  Parhament  after  an  eleven  year  interval. 
The  old  struggle  was  resumed.  This  time  the  leader 
was  John  Hampden  —  Sir  John  Eliot,  who  earlier  had 
led  the  opposition,  hav- 
ing died  in  prison.  Par- 
liament at  once  passed 
a  resolution  declaring 
that  it  could  be  dis- 
solved only  by  its  own 
vote.  Enraged  at  this, 
Charles  I  entered  the 
House  of  Commons  in 
person  in  an  attempt  to 
arrest  the  five  leading 
members  but  he  was 
forced  to  retire  upon 
the  Speaker's  refusal  to 
point  them  out.  Civil 
War  soon  followed. 
After  several  years  of  warfare,  the  Parliamenta- 
rians, led  by  Oliver  Cromwell,  were  victorious  and 
Charles  I  was  executed  as  a  traitor,  tyrant,  and  public 
enemy. 

CROMWELL    AND    THE    COMMONWEALTH 

The  period  of  the  Commonwealth  and  the  Protectorate 
under  Cromwell  (1649-1660)  followed.  Since  he  did 
not  have  a  united  England  under  him,  Cromwell  was 
forced  to  use  arbitrary  measures  to  hold  his  position  as 
dictator.  His  army  was  made  into  a  military  machine 
to  carry  on  the  government  and  when  Parliament  did  not 
vote  to  suit  the  "  Protector,"  as  Cromwell  was  called 
later,  he  turned  a  regiment  of  soldiers  into  the  house  and 


John  Hampden 

From  a  print  by  I.  IloubraJcen 


40  AMERICAN  DEMOCRACY 

"  purged  "  it  of  members  who  were  not  pleasing  to  him. 
At  another  time  he  drove  the  members  of  this  "  rump  " 
parliament  from  the  hall  where  they  were  assembled, 
locked  the  doors,  and  put  the  key  into  his  pocket.  By 
this  time  he  too  had  grown  to  believe  that  he  was  gov- 
erning England  by  Divine  Right. 

Cromwell  both  as  a  man  and  as  a  ruler  has  been 
greatly  admired  by  some  people  and  violently  de- 
nounced by  others.  While  it  is  true  that  he  instituted 
many  commendable  measures,  his  rule  began  to*  break 
down  before  his  death  in  1659  because  he  failed  to 
give  Englishmen  that  for  which  they  had  so  long  striven 
—  government  by  the  people  through  their  representa- 
tives in  Parliament. 

THE    RESTORATION    PERIOD,    1660-1688 

After  Cromwell's  death,  a  period  of  anarchy  fol- 
lowed until,  in  1660,  the  Stuarts  were  restored  in  the 
person  of  the  dissolute  Charles  II.  This  period  counted 
little  toward  the  advancement  of  government  by  the  peo- 
ple, although  it  was  in  this  reign  that  the  famous 
"  Habeas  Corpus  Act  "  was  put  upon  the  statute  books. 
This  law  finally  made  Englishmen  secure  from  false 
arrest.  Because  of  the  many  pretended  popish  plots,  all 
Catholics  were  shut  out  from  Parliament  with  the  result 
that  for  one  hundred  and  fifty  years  thereafter,  no  Cath- 
olic sat  in  either  house.  Lords  or  Commons. 

Toward  the  close  of  Charles  II's  reign  real  political^ 
parties  began  to  appear.      Those  who  believed  in  the 
supremacy   of   Parliament   were   called   "  Whigs,"   and 
those  who  believed  the  King  the  source  of  power  were 
called,  in  scorn,  "  Tories." 

James  II  succeeded  his  brother  Charles  II  in  1685. 
The  new  King  tried  to  restore  the  Catholic   religion. 


HELPS  FROM  MODERN  ENGLAND  41 

This  roused  the  resentment  of  the  men  who  controlled 
the  government.  Therefore  James  II's  reign  was 
brief  and  inglorious.  He  could  not  manage  Parlia- 
ment and  he  prorogued  it  from  time  to  time  until  he 
finally  dissolved  it.  Meanwhile,  certain  statesmen  of 
England  secretly  negotiated  with  William  of  Orange, 
the  husband  of  James's  daughter,  Mary,  and  presently 
offered  him  James  H's  throne.  William  accepted  and 
with  Mary  came  to  England  in  1688.  Thereupon 
James  II  precipitately  fled  to  France  and  sought  the 
protection  of  Louis  XIV. 

PARLIAMENTARY    CONTROI,    ESTABLISHED 

Before  the  coronation  of  William  and  Mary,  a 
"  Bill  of  Rights  "  was  drawn  up,  limiting  the  powers 
of  the  King.  This  Bill  of  Rights,  which  insured  the 
"  undoubtful  rights  and  liberties  "  of  Englishmen,  re- 
hearsed the  main  items  of  Magna  Charta  and  added 
whatever  was  new  and  definite  in  the  "  Petition  of 
Right."  It  reaffirmed  that  taxes  were  not  to  be 
levied  without  the  consent  of  Parliament,  that  the 
King  was  not  to  interfere  with  the  execution  of  the  laws, 
and  that  there  were  to  be  frequent  Parliaments ;  it 
prohibited  a  standing  army~a.nd  billeting  of  troops  in 
private  houses  in  times  of  peace ;  it  reaffirmed  free- 
dom of  discussion.  It  added  that  England  was  a  Prot- 
estant country  and  that  the  ruler  of  England  and 
Ireland  should  be  neither  a  Catholic  nor  the  husband 
or  wife  of  one  of  that  faith ;  it  disabled  "  Papists," 
Jews,  and  Unitarians  from  sitting  in  Parliament,  from 
holding  office,  and  from  attending  universities. 

In  spite  of  the  inconsistencies  in  this  "  Bill  of  Rights  " 
and  though  deceit  and  selfishness  marked  every  step  in 
the  carrying  out  of  the  Revolution  of  1688,  the  results 


42  AMERICAN  DEMOCRACY 

were  important  to  the  cause  of  democracy.  The  main 
points  gained  were  four:  the  judges  in  the  courts 
were  made  irremovable,  even  by  the  King;  an  election 
for  Parliament  was  thereafter  to  be  held  at  least  every 
three  years ;  revenue  bills  were  thereafter  to  be  for  one 
year  only ;  and  the  beginning  of  Cabinet  government  was 
made.  This  latter  came  about  because  William  chose 
his  ministers  from  the  leading  political  party  of  the 
House  of  Commons  and  thus  these  ministers  were  respon- 
sible directly  to  Parliament. 

William  of  Orange  accepted  the  conditions  of  the 
Bill  of  Rights  and  became  King  in  1688,  but  his  ac- 
cession did  not  bring  peace  and  security  to  England. 
His  reign  was  a  time  of  popular  unrest,  for  the  peo- 
ple, both  in  England  and  in  her  American  colonies, 
were  beginning  to  feel  the  desire  for  political  liberty. 
England  was  also  distracted  by  the  claims  of  the  exiled 
Stuarts  who  were  supported  by  the  royalists  in  Eng- 
land and  by  a  majority  of  the  Scotch. 

James  IPs  daughter  Anne  (1702-1714),  the  last 
Stuart,  succeeded  William  of  Orange.  The  most  im- 
portant political  event  of  her  reign  was  the  union  of 
Scotland  with  England  in  1707,  when  the  Scots  gave  up 
their  separate  Parliament  in  consideration  of  the  re- 
moval of  duties  on  goods  passing  across  the  borders. 

THE    AMERICAN    REVOLUTION 

George  III  (1760-1820)  followed  two  other  Hanove- 
rian Georges.  In  his  reign  the  American  colonies 
gained  their  independence.  At  this  time  colonies  were 
looked  upon  merely  as  sources  of  income  for  the 
mother  country.  But  England,  because  of  domestic 
troubles,  had  up  to  George  Hi's  time  allowed  her  Amer- 
ican colonies  an  almost  free  hand  in  their  internal  and 


HELPS  FROM  MODERN  ENGLAND  43 

commercial  development.  George  III,  realizing  that 
the  colonies  were  bringing  little  to  the  imperial  treasury* 
sought  to  remedy  the  condition  by  reviving  neglected 
trade  laws  whose  enforcement  would  hamper  the  com- 
merce and  manufactures  of  the  colonists  and  give  the 
main  profit  of  American  business  to  British  merchants. 
The  king  and  Parliament  also  sought  to  impose  a  new 
system  of  colonial  taxation.  The  Americans  resisted, 
and  in  1776  set  up  the  United  States  of  America. 

In  the  study  of  the  American  Revolution  it  must  not 
be  forgotten  that  the  colonists  had  powerful  and  ac- 
tive friends  in  England.  The  liberals,  Pitt,  Fox  and 
the  great  orator,  Burke,  openly  spoke  out  in  favor  of 
the  colonists.  What'  angered  George  III  at  Pitt  and 
the  other  American  sympathizers  was  the  fact  that 
their  attitude  was  the  cause  of  added  discontent  among 
the  great  masses  of  the  middle  class,  who,  because  of 
the  unfair  distribution  of  representation  in  the  Com- 
mons, were  deprived  of  any  voice  in  the  government. 
"  Pocket  boroughs,"  small  villages  or  districts  almost 
without  inhabitants,  and  "  rotten  boroughs,"  controlled 
by  wealthy  landowners,  began  to  be  complained  of  be- 
cause they  held  many  seats  in  Parliament  while  the  great 
manufacturing  cities  were  absolutely  unrepresented. 

That  the  fight  for  political  freedom  was  a  longer, 
bitterer  struggle  in  England  than  in  America  was  due 
to  age-long  inherited  evils  —  religious  intolerance, 
class  rule,  and  a  fixity  of  privil9^es  which  it  took  many 
years  to  overcome.  America  idealized  a  great  measure 
of  political  freedom  much  earlier  and  more  easily  than 
did  the  people  of  England  because  she  cut  with  one 
blow  the  bonds  of  ancient  wrong,  and,  foot-loose  and 
scot-free,  set  out  on  the  great  adventure  of  populai 
self-government. 


44  AMERICAN  DEMOCRACY 

In  George  Ill's  reign,  Ireland  was  united  to  Great 
Britain  by  an  act  of  Union  which  was  secured  by 
wholesale  bribery.  The  Parliament  of  Ireland,  com- 
posed entirely  of  Irish  Protestants,  voted  itself  out  of 
existence  and  128  Protestant  representatives  were  sent 
to  sit  in  the  Parliament  of  the  United  Kingdom  of 
Great  Britain  and   Ireland. 

EXTENSION    OF    SUFFRAGE 

In  spite  of  the  fact  that  in  1688  Parliament  haa  been 
definitely  set  up  as  the  source  of  law,  the  whole  of  the 
18th  century  was  a  period  of  political  stagnation  if  not 
retrogression  in  England.  Little  progress  was  made 
toward  the  extension  of  the  franchise.  The  small 
group  who  held  the  right  to  vote  and  to  hold  office,  to 
make  and  unmake  laws,  fought  hard  to  confine  those 
privileges  to  themselves.  But  with  the  opening  of  the 
19th  century,  signs  of  change  appeared.  In  1828,  the 
laws  discriminating  against  Quakers  and  other  "  non- 
jurors "  were  removed;  in  1829,  through  the  eff^orts 
of  Daniel  O'Connell,  Catholics  were  allowed  to  sit  in 
Parliament ;  and  in  1858,  Jews  were  finally  permitted 
a  place  in  the  councils  of  the  nation. 

At  long  intervals  the  demands  of  the  people  for 
political  rights  made  real  advances  toward  a  juster  and 
more  liberal  representation  of  the  people.  Three  re- 
form bills  were  passed  grudgingly  by  the  Commons  and 
with  bitter  strife  on  the  part  of  the  Lords  in  1832, 
1867,  and  1885. 

The  first  Reform  Act  fathered  by  "Lord"  John 
Russell  went  into  effect  in  1832  after  two  other  at- 
tempts had  failed.  By  this  act  the  franchise  was  ex- 
tended to  a  great  portion  of  the  middle  class,  and 
one  hundred  fifty  members  of  "  rotten  "  and  "  pocket  " 


HELPS  FROM  MODERN  ENGLAND  45 

boroughs  lost  their  places.  These  places  were  given 
largely  to  new  towns  and  populous  counties  in  Eng- 
land; a  few  went  to  Scotland  and  Ireland. 
'  At  this  period,  the  terms  "  Liberal  "  and  "  Conserv- 
ative "  began  to  take  the  place  of  "  Whig "  and 
"  Tory."  The  fact  that  the  reform  in  representation 
was  not  granted  freely  left  a  bitterness  of  feeling  be- 
tween the  leisure  and  working  classes  of  England,  a 
feeling  which  has  been  kept  alive  by  the  piling  up  of 
wealth  in  the  hands  of  a  few,  while  the  many  remain 
below  decent  levels  of  life. 

In  the  early  days  of  Victoria's  reign  (1837-1901),  a 
clamor,  usually  spoken  of  as  the  "  Chartist  Agitation," 
arose  among  the  poorer  classes.  The  agitators  were 
asking  for  six  definite  reforms  which  they  set  forth 
in  a  platform  called  the  "  People's  Charter."  These 
demands,  which  seem  very  mild  to  us,  were  as  follows: 
universal  suffrage,  annual  Parliaments,  vote  by  ballot, 
abolition  of  property  qualifications  for  members  of 
Parliament,  payment  for  members  of  Parliament,  and 
equal  electoral  districts. 

Practically  all  of  these  demands  have  in  the  course 
of  time  been  granted,  but  in  the  days  of  the  Chartist 
Agitation  —  from  1838  to  1848  —  England  was  in  a 
periodical  uproar  over  this  "  radical  "  program.  In 
1848,  the  year  of  revolutions  in  Europe,  the  Chartists 
were  put  down  after  all  England,  particularly  Lon- 
don, had  been  thrown  into  a  panic  of  unreasonable  fear 
by  the  attempt  of  the  Chartists  to  march  in  a  body  to 
Parliament  to  present  a  monster  petition  which  it  was 
claimed  contained  five  million  signatures.  The  author- 
ities of  London  were  alarmed.  Two  hundred  thousand 
special  police  were  sworn  in,  but  nothing  happened  as 


46  AMERICAN  DEMOCRACY 

the  agitators  seemed  to  have  frightened  themselves  as 
well  as  the  authorities. 

After  that  time  little  was  heard  of  the  Chartists  but 
their  work  bore  visible  fruit  in  1867  when  a  second 
Reform  Act  was  passed.  This  act  extended  suffrage 
to  householders  and  lodgers  in  cities,  and  to  farmers 
and  tenant-farmers  in  rural  districts.  In  1872  the 
right  of  suffrage  was  made  more  secure  by  the  Ballot 
Act  which  allowed  a  voter  to  use  a  printed  form  in- 
stead of  openly  announcing  his  choice  as  was  done  be- 
fore that  time. 

In  1885  the  "  Representation  of  the  People  "  Act 
gave  to  all  male  householders  and  lodgers  a  right  to 
vote,  provided  they  paid  their  rent.  By  this  act, 
passed  under  Gladstone's  leadership,  two  million  voters 
were  added  to  the  roll  of  electors  and  at  last  the  right 
which  had  been  taken  away  by  the  statute  of  1429  was 
restored  to  working-men  and  laborers. 

THE    GOVERNMENT    OF    ENGLAND 

In  the  development  of  government  by  the  consent 
of  the_governed,  the  House  of  Lords  has  had  very  little 
part.  As  a  body,  their  contribution  has  been  entirely 
negative ;  that  is,  they  may  attempt  to  control  legisla- 
tion by  their  veto  but  they  have  little  positive  influence 
in  making  new  laws.  Every  attempt  at  reform  has 
been  hampered  by  the  Lords,  who  at  times  have  al- 
lowed the  passage  of  measures  only  by  the  threat  of  the 
Commons  to  compel  the  King  to  "  create  "  a  sufficient 
number  of  "  Liberal "  Lords  to  carry  through  desired 
legislation. 

Of  late  years  there  has  been  serious  discussion  of 
totally  abolishing  the  House  of  Lords,  that  seat  of 
"  ancient  privilege  and  vested  wrong."     A  virtual  de- 


Courtesy  of  Ginn  and  Company 

Gladstone   Addressixg   the    House   of  Co3r3ioxs 
From    Outlines   of   European   History,    Part   II,    by   Robinson    and   Beard 


48  AMERICAN  DEMOCRACY 

struction  of  its  power  to  hinder  legislation  was  accom- 
plished by  a  law  passed  in  1911  which  provides  that, 
regardless  of  the  Lords'  veto,  any  money  bill  passed  by 
the  Commons  becomes  a  law  within  a  month,  and  any 
other  bill  after  three  successive  sessions  have  passed  it. 

The  House  of  Commons,  the  real  seat  of  the  govern- 
ment of  England,  executes  the  will  of  the  majority  of 
its  members  through  what  is  called  the  "  Government," 
in  other  words  the  English  Cabinet.  As  in  the  United 
States,  political  movements  are  carried  forward  by 
means  of  political  parties,  of  which,  in  1914,  there 
were  four  —  Liberal,  Conservative  (Unionist),  Labor- 
ite,  and  the  Irish  party.  To  make  a  majority  and 
thus  get  measures  passed,  different  parties  sometimes 
join  forces,  concessions  being  made  on  each  side.  The 
Prime  Minister  is  the  leader  of  the  party  which,  by  it- 
self or  by  combination  with  other  parties,  can  com- 
mand the  majority  of  votes  of  the  Commons.  The 
Prime  Minister  selects  assistants  for  his  executive  coun- 
cil which  corresponds  in  some  ways  to  our  Pj-esident's 
Cabinet.  However  this  body,  unlike  the  American 
Cabinet,  brings  up  all  important  measures  that  are  to 
be  enacted  into  laws. 

If,  for  some  reason,  the  lining-up  of  the  Commons 
becomes  disturbed  and  the  Prime  Minister  is  unable 
to  carry  through  important  measures,  his  ministry 
"  falls  " ;  he  is  automatically  dismissed  and  the  leader 
of  the  party  which  can  control  the  House  forms  a 
new  Cabinet.  The  only  alternative  that  the  Prime 
Minister  can  choose  is  to  dissolve  Parliament  and  call 
for  a  new  election,  a  proceeding  called  "  an  appeal  to 
the  people."  The  result  of  the  elections  shows  whether 
the  Prime  Minister  or  the  opposing  party  has  the  sup- 
port   of   the    country.     Thus    in   England   the    Prime 


HELPS  FROM  MODERN  ENGLAND  49 

Minister  and  his  Cabinet  always  have  the  backing  of 
the  majority  of  the  house.  In  America  a  President 
elected  by  one  party  may  have  a  Congress  that  is  con- 
trolled by  the  other  party  and  as  a  consequence,  legis- 
lation may  be  almost  completely  blocked  because  of  a 
deadlock  between  Congress  and  the  President. 

The  assertion  is  often  made  that  the  government  of 
England  is  more  sensitive  to  the  will  of  the  people  than 
is  the  government  of  the  United  States,  but  when  we 
realize  the  contrast  between  the  social  life  in  America 
and  that  in  England,  where  class  is  still  strongly 
marked ;  when  we  remember  that  a  hereditary  House  of 
Lords  is  one  branch  of  the  British  government ;  when 
we  consider  also  that  in  the  conduct  of  foreign  affairs, 
that  is,  in  the  management  of  the  vast  British  Empire, 
the  English  people  have  nothing  at  all  to  say,  we  may 
fairly  conclude  that  the  assertion  is  not  true.  More- 
over, in  the  actual  working  of  the  English  government, 
there  has  grown  up  a  large  body  of  what  may  be  termed 
administrative  laws,  by  means  of  which  government  is 
carried  on  without  immediate  regard  to  the  will  of  the 
people.  In  fact,  in  England,  as  in  other  European 
countries,  and  to  some  extent  in  the  United  States,  the 
government  does  not  always  carry  out  the  will  of  even 
a  majority  of  the  people. 

In  the  matter  of  rural  and  municipal  local  govern- 
ment, great  advances  were  made  in  England  during  the 
19th  century.  The  boroughs  had  always  preserved 
a  good  measure  of  self-government  even  from  Saxon 
times  and  the  people  in  the  rapidly  growing  cities  have 
carried  out  the  practice  of  their  ancestors  by  their  ac- 
tive and  independent  management  of  local  affairs.  By 
the  end  of  the  century,  city  governments  had  become 
thoroughly     democratic,     efficient,     and     enlightened. 


50  AMERICAN  DEMOCRACY 

Public  utilities  —  water,  street-lighting,  and  local  trans- 
portation systems  —  are  now  largely  owned  and  suc- 
cessfully operated  by  the  cities  themselves. 

The  Great  War  brought  virtual  universal  suffrage 
to  the  people  of  England.  In  1918  a  law  was  passed 
which  lowered  the  property  qualification  to  so  slight 
an  amount  that  the  vote  was  given  to  practically  all  men 
over  twenty-one  and  to  all  women  over  thirty.  The 
limitation  to  women  over  thirty  is  a  temporary  provi- 
sion made  because  the  war  had  so  reduced  the  number 
of  men  that  there  was  danger  of  an  overwhelming  woman 
vote.  It  may  be  noted  in  passing  that  while  this  fourth 
Reform  Bill  in  effect  gives  to  each  person  a  right  to  a 
voice  in  the  government,  suffrage  in  England  is  based 
on  "  property  "  rights  and  not  on  "  natural  "  rights,  as 
is  the  case  in  the  United  States. 

DEMOCRACY    A    SLOW    GROWTH 

In  this  brief  survey  of  the  growth  of  political  free- 
dom in  England  can  be  seen  the  prolonged  and  con- 
tinuous struggle  between  the  two  principles  of  govern- 
ment —  on  the  one  side  autocracy,  the  old  enemy,  and 
on  the  other,  democracy,  the  approximate  rule  of  the 
people.  Looked  at  fairly,  the  lengthened  story  pre- 
sents a  not  altogether  pleasant  picture  of  human  na- 
ture, for  often  when  democracy  seemed  about  to  be- 
come triumphant,  it  turned  out  to  be  not  the  true  gold 
of  popular  rule,  but  the  pallid  silver  of  self-seeking, 
that  desired  expression  for  its  own  aspirations  but  re- 
fused a  like  expression  to  others  of  a  different  faith, 
race,  or  social  status. 

The  ruling  powers  in  England,  Parliament  as  well  as 
King,  have  been  slow  in  trusting  the  common  people. 
Every    reform    has    been    wrung    from    governmental 


HELPS  FROM  MODERN  ENGLAND  51 

agencies  as  by  sweat  and  blood.  So  simple  and  lucid 
a  thing  as  justice  had  to  be  thus  painfully  won.  The 
spectacle  of  rulers  and  law  makers  refusing  again  and 
again  a  decent  consideration  for  the  reasonable  de- 
mands of  their  fellow  men  makes  the  lover  of  mankind 
sad  and  sick  at  heart. 

But  the  picture  has  its  bright  side.  The  course  has 
been  on  the  whole  upward ;  conditions  have  vastly  im- 
proved and  a  better  day  seems  to  be  dawning.  The 
student  of  the  political  history  of  England  remembers 
with  a  glow  of  warmth  that  every  step  in  that  long 
journey  is  marked  by  the  heroic  devotion  of  fearless 
leaders,  who  built  for  others  than  themselves ;  men  who, 
imperfect  instruments  though  they  were,  wrought  some- 
times unconsciously,  often  haltingly,  the  Gothic  fabric 
of  popular  government,  and  led  the  way  to  clearer 
ideals  of  justice  and  equity,  of  fair  play  and  a  "  square 
deal." 

No  class  can  claim  these  men  whose  names  every 
lover  of  liberty  reveres,  no  single  profession,  no  single 
creed.  The  noble  line  holds  the  names  of  Stephen 
Langton,  Archbishop  of  Canterbury;  Simon  de  Mont- 
fort,  a  Norman  baron ;  Sir  John  Eliot,  Vice-Admiral  of 
the  fleet;  John  Hampden,  a  simple  country  squire;  Wil- 
liam Pitt,  the  Great  Commoner;  Daniel  O'Connell,  a 
landless  Irish  lawyer;  John  Russell,  the  son  of  a 
peer  of  the  realm;  and  William  Gladstone,  an  un- 
titled Englishman.  Indeed,  such  names  show  in  truth 
"  the  sacred  mystery  of  democracy,  that  its  richest 
fruits  spring  out  of  soils  which  no  man  Kas  prepared, 
and  in  circumstances  amidst  whictr^hey  lirc4xiast  ex- 
pected." ^  These  men  will  stand  foremost  in  the  ranks 
of  warriors  who  fought  with  other  than  mortal 
iWoodrow  Wilson. 


52  AMERICAN  DEMOCRACY 

weapons,  men  who  with  brain  and  tongue  and  trench 
ant    pen    dared    cope    with    vested    authority    in    the 
furtherance  of  free  exercise  of  the  right  of  the  people 
to  rule  themselves. 

There  is  an  ancient,  oft  repeated,  much  neglected 
rule  called  by  all  men  "  Golden,"  because  of  its  simple 
truth  and  beauty.  Its  application  by  parliaments  and 
peace  conferences  would  go  far  toward  making  govern- 
ment of  and  by  the  people  an  actual  brotherhood  of 
man.  Such  an  accomplishment  is  worthy  the  best 
efforts  of  all  men  everywhere. 


CHAPTER  III 

GOVERNMENTAL  DEVELOPMENT  IN 
AMERICA 

Here  ...  on  this  soil 
Began  the  kingdom,  not  of  kings,  but  men! 
Began  the  making  of  the  world  again; 
Where  equal  rights  and  equal  bonds  were  set, 
Where  all  the  people  cqual-franchised  met; 
Where  doom  was  writ  of  privilege  and  crown; 
Where  human  breath  blew  all  the  idols  down; 
Where  crests  were  nought,  where  vulture  flags  were  furled, 
And  common  men  began  to  own  the  world. 

John  Boyle  O'Reilly  (The  Pilgrim  Fathers.) 

While  the  development  of  government  by  the  people 
in  England  has  had  a  more  or  less  direct  bearing  on  the 
democratic  development  of  the  United  States,  the  main 
stream  of  influence  was  transferred  to  America  in  the 
seventeenth  and  eighteenth  centuries.  It  was  at  that 
time  that  there  began  in  America  a  democracy  differing 
in  many  respects  from  that  of  the  parent  country. 

THE    FIRST    AMERICANS 

The  men  who  made  the  beginnings  of  our  country 
were  not  the  "  average  human  material."  They  were, 
in  a  certain  sense,  picked  men.  The  majority  of  those" 
who  immigrated  to  the  new  land  were  drawn  from 
neither  extreme  of  English  society,  the  wretched  poor 
nor  the  arrogant  nobility.  They  were  largely  from 
the  sturdy  middle  class,  who,  for  one  reason  or  another, 

had  the  courage  and  the  enterprise  to  venture  into  un- 

53 


54 


AMERICAN  DEMOCRACY 


/,      . 


"  \uctv  fsi,:?  4  b«i».-)»U:  ip  v^  tttir  ^">«tr  'Poum 


vt\K»  a.  t-tttOiuc'  Cotmtr^v 


Courtesy  of  The  Macmillan  Company 

The  Opexing  Lines  of 

From  Channing's  History  of  the  United  States 

tried  fields  in  a  new  and  savage  country  far  across 
the  sea.  They  were  artisans,  tradesmen,  farmers, 
townsfolk,  and  country  people,  with  a  sprinkling  of 
gentlemen-adventurers,  bond-servants,  and  vagabonds, 
all  seeking  to  better  themselves  in  one  way  or  another. 

\     Some  of  them  sought  more  of  this  world's  goods,  others 
\  sought  political  freedom,  and  yet  others  a  chance  to 

•s   worship  God  according  to  their  own  consciences.     With 
I  many  of  them  the  three  motives  were  combined. 

Whatever  the  special  reason  that  impelled  these  men 
to  fare  forth,  the  object  sought  by  all  was  essentially 
the  same  —  a  freer,  better,  broader  life  for  the  in- 
dividual. Thus,  though  the  Jamestown  settlers  came 
chiefly  for  economic  reasons  and  a  love  of  adventure; 
the  Pilgrims  of  Plymouth,  the  Catholics  of  Maryland, 
the  Quakers  of  Pennsylvania  for  religious  liberty ;  and 
the  Puritans  of  Massachusetts  Bay  for  relief  from  the 
oppression  of  a  tyrant,  the  supreme  motive  in  every 


GROWTH  OF  DEMOCRACY  IN  AMERICA       55 


THE  Pennsylvania  Charter 


instance  was  a  desire  for  liberty  and  the  opportunity 
to  get  ahead,  in  other  words,  individual  freedom. 

From  the  very  first  a  marked  change  in  the  man- 
ners and  ideals  of  the  colonists  began  to  show  itself. 
The  early  settlers  brought  with  them  few  men  of  rank, 
and  society  was  more  or  less  on  a  level.  Moreover, 
owing  to  the  great  expanse  of  country,  men  could  move 
about  freely  seeking  larger  opportunities.  When  a 
bond-servant  had  finished  his  term  of  service,  he  could 
strike  out  for  himself  and  become  a  man  among  men. 
The  necessity  for  labor  with  the  hands  proved  to  be 
a  great  leveller  and  in  a  marked  degree  helped  the 
growth  of  the  democratic  spirit. 

In  all  of  the  colonies,  the  clearly  defined  practice 
of  managing  the  affairs  common  to  all  by  some  sort  of 
legislative  assembly  was  adopted.  The  men  of  each 
colony  claimed  the  hard-won  political  rights  of  Eng- 
lishmen, especially  the  right  to  control  taxation.     The 


56  AMERICAN  DEMOCRACY 

colonial  assemblies  more  or  less  regularly  imposed  the 
taxes  and  in  general  had  a  voice  in  making  the  laws. 
As  a  consequence,  tlie  colonists  were  independent  and 
/  self-reliant.  It  was,  in  fact,  this  dominating  desire 
to  manage  their  own  affairs  that  led  to  the  break  with 
England. 

PERIOD    OF    SETTLEMENT,    1607-1732 

The  settlement  of  Virginia  was  begun  in  1607  by 
"  sundry  knights,  gentlemen,  merchants,  and  other  ad- 
venturers "  sent  out  by  the  London  Company  whose 
charter  placed  the  government  of  the  colony  in  the 
hands  of  a  "  careful  and  understanding  council,"  nomi- 
nated by  the  King.  In  1619,  the  Virginia  House  of 
Burgesses  held  the  first  legislative  assembly  in  Amer- 
ica. This  Assembly,  which  was  the  direct  ancestor  of 
all  of  the  free  assemblies  of  America,  was  composed  of 
delegates  elected  from  each  of  the  eleven  boroughs  of 
the  colony,  and  was  a  miniature  House  of  Commons 
for  Virginia.  One  Jefferson,  whose  descendant, 
Thomas  Jefferson,  a  century  and  a  half  later  wrote 
the  charter  of  the  United  States  of  America,  was  a 
member.  /The  delegates  who  made  up  this  first  as- 
sembly w'^re  not  from  the  rank  and  file  of  the  people, 
but  were  men  of  wealth  and  position.  This  aristo- 
cratic county  family  systemV developed  the  great  Vir- 
ginia leaders  of  Revolutionary  times  —  the  Washing- 
tons,  the  Lees,  the  Randolphs.  But  the  very  year  that 
saw  the  beginning  of  free  institutions  in  America  also 
witnessed  the  introduction  of  human  slavery  into  the 
same  colony,  for  in  1619,  a  cargo  of  twenty  slaves  was 
brought  from  Africa  by  a  Dutch  trading  vessel  and 
sold  to  the  Virginia  planters. 

Virginia  continued  to  develop  her  independent  spirit 


GROWTH  OF  DEMOCRACY  IN  AMERICA       57 


although  she  had  much  trouble  with  tyrannical  gov- 
ernors. The  most  noted  of  these  was  Governor 
Berkeley,  a  stubborn  reactionary,  who  for  nearly 
thirty-five  years  opposed  popular  government  in  the 
colony.  On  one  occasion  it  is  said  that  he  thanked 
God  that  there  were  no  free  schools  in  Virginia  as 
there  were  in  New  England, 
nor  any  printing  press, 
"  because,"  he  said,  "  too 
much  education  leads  to  sedi- 
tion." But  the  Virginian 
colonists  conducted  their 
individual  affairs  with  a 
healthy  independence,  as  the 
hand  of  the  royal  governor 
was  not  strong  enough  nop 
long  enough  to  restrict  daily 
life  on  the  scattered  planta- 
tions. 

During  the  Stuart  period,  owing  to  civil  strife  in 
England,  a  large  number  of  Englishmen  came  to  live  in 
Massachusetts.  In  1620,  the  Pilgrims  —  one  hundred 
men,  women  and  children  —  landed  at  Plymouth  Rock 
after  having  drawn  up  the  Mayflower  Compact,  in 
which  they  agreed  solemnly  and  mutually  to  combine 
themselves  into  a  body  that  would  make  all  laws  for 
the  general  good  of  the  colony.  In  a  word,  they 
pledged  themselves  to  obey  whatever  laws  they  them- 
selves should  make. 

Beginning  ten  years  later,  between  1630  .and  1640, 
ten  thousand  Puritans  came*  from  England  to  escape 
the  tyranny  of  Charles  I.  They  settled  at  Boston, 
Cambridge,  Charleston,  and  other  small  towns  situated 
about    Massachusetts    Bay.     The    members    of    these 


The  Seal  of  the  ^tate  of 
Virginia 

Designed  by   George  Mason 


58  ^  AMERICAN  DEMOCRACY 

separate  settlements,  usually  made  up  of  a  minister  and 
his  congregation,  gathered  in  their  meeting-houses  not 
only  for  worship  but  for  the  conduct  of  worldly  af- 
fairs. When  the  people  came  together  for  other  than 
religious  purposes,  the  gathering  was  a  town-meeting. 
The  unit,  whether  of  Church  or  State,  was  called  a 
township. 

By  the  time  of  the  Revolution,  Massachusetts  had 
become  a  group  of  little,  self-governing  republics  in 
which  all  the  people,  with  certain  restrictions,  had  a 
direct  voice  in  affairs  both  civil  and  religious.  The 
legislative  assembly  for  the  entire  colony  was  made  up 
of  delegates  to  the  "  General  Court,"  a  body  that  cor- 
responded in  many  ways  to  the  Virginia  House  of  Bur- 
gesses. "  Church  and  State "  in  the  minds  of  the 
Puritans  of  Massachusetts  wttc  indissolubly  united. 
Education  was  attended  to  primarily  because,  as  mem- 
bers of  the  Church,  the  communicants  must  be  ready  to 
vote  intelligently  and  to  hold  office.  This  made  it  nec- 
essary that  everyone  should  know  how  to  read  the  Bible. 
"  Common  "  schools  were  therefore  established  for  all 
the  children,  and  "  Latin "  schools  for  prospective 
ministers. • ■_ — ^^^^^^r^ 

It  was  in  the  democratic  features  of  its  government 
that  Massachusetts  differed  greatly  from  the  "  county 
family  "  feature  of  Virginia.  While  Virginia  bred 
leaders,  Massachusetts  and  the  other  New  England 
colonies  developed  sturdy  popular  interest  in  govern- 
ment and  a  practice  in  popular  control  which  later 
stood  the  .United  States  in  good  stead.  When  trouble 
with  England  drew  toward  the  point  of  eruption,  be- 
tween 1765  and  1775,  Massachusetts  and  Virginia 
formed  the  outer  sides  of  the  great  wedge  which  was 
to  push  royal  authority  from  the  thirteen  colonies. 


\ 


GROWTH  OF  DEMOCRACY  IN  AMERICA       59 

In  Massachusetts,  the  clash  of  ideals  concerning  the 
right  of  suffrage  led  to  the  founding  of  new  colonies. 
Governor  Winthrop  and  the  other  founders  of  Mas- 
sachusetts feared  a  real  democracy,  believing  that  only 
the  best  trained  men  were  wise  and  good  enough  to 
govern.  Therefore  they  set  up  what  really  amounted 
to  an  aristocratic  form  of  government,  in  which  a  little 


Courtesy  of  Charles  Scribner's   Sons 

Hooker's  Emigratiox  to  Connecticut 


body  of  seven  or  eight  men  imposed  taxes,  made  laws, 
and  ruled  the  colony.  The  Reverend  Thomas  Hooker, 
pastor  of  Newton,  held  the  more  democratic  view  that 
the  whole  people  ought  to  be  governed  by  the  whole 
people,  provided  they  belonged  to  the  Church. 

The  strife  was  heated  and  finally  in  1636,  Thomas 
Hooker  led  his  own  and  several  other  congregations 
to  the  Connecticut  Valley,  a  land  of  reputed  fruitful- 
ness  and  promise.     Here,  in  1639,  the  citizens  of  three 


60  AMERICAN  DEMOCRACY 

neighboring   towns   met   and   agreed   to   govern   them- 
selves by  "  The  Fundamental  Orders  of  Connecticut," 
a  written  constitution  under  which  only  church  mem- 
bers were  allowed  to  vote  and  to  hold  office.     This  was 
the  first  time  in  the  history  of  government  that  a  com- 
monwealth was  established  by  a   written  constitution. 
I     With  a  delightfully  democratic  carelessness,  the  docu- 
ment failed  to  mention  the  name  of  King  in  any  part 
of  its  quaint  and  precise  wording. 
H^      About  the  same  time  that  Connecticut  was  settled, 
Roger  Williams,  a  minister  of  Salem,  was  driven  out 
of  Massachusetts  because  he  believed  in  the  separation 
of  Church  and   State  and  preached  this  "  heretical  " 
doctrine.     To  free  himself  from  persecution,  he  bought 
a  piece  of  land  from  the  Indians  and  founded  Provi- 
dence.    Here  flocked  persons  of  various  heterodox  re- 
ligious   views  —  among    them    Anne    Hutchinson    who 
could  not  agree  with  the  Puritan  ministers  on  questions 
j     of  theology  and  who  practised  woman's  rights  by  freely 
criticizing    and    discussing    these    matters    in    public. 
A  charter  was  granted  in  1643,  which  gave  the  inhabi- 
tants  "  full  power  and   authority   to   rule  themselves, 
;       as,  by  voluntary  consent  of  all  or  the  greater  part  of 
I       them,  they  shall  find  most  suitable  to  their  estate  or 
'        condition."     As  no  mention  of  religious  test  was  made, 
/        it  is  needless  to  say  that  the  Rhode  Island  Colony  grew 
\       apace. 

Maryland,  under  the  Catholic  Lord  Baltimore,  be- 
gan its  existence  as  an  organized  colony  in  1634,  with  a 
liberal  charter  which  was  the  first  to  allow  religious 
freedom.  Among  the  people  of  Lord  Baltimore's 
colony,  a  fierce  spirit  of  political  liberty  was  combined 
with  an  ingrained  respect  for  law  and  a  strong  tend- 


GROWTH  OF  DEMOCRACY  IN  AMERICA      61 


ency  to  work  out  results  not  by  violence  but  by  de- 
bate. 

New  York,  first  set- 
tled by  the  Dutch,  be- 
cause of  toleration  in 
religious  matters,  soon 
became  a  place  of 
refuge  for  the  perse- 
cuted of  all  nations. 
By  1643,  eighteen  dif- 
ferent languages  were 
spoken  in  the  streets 
of  New  York.  The 
form  of  government 
was  a  representative 
assembly.  In  1683, 
New  York  was  trans- 
ferred to  the  English 
and  James  II  closed 
the  assembly,  placing 
New  Y^ork  under  a 
royal  governor. 

The  Carolinas  have 
a  curious  and  interest- 
ing governmental  his- 
tory. With  astonish- 
ing generosity,  Charles 
II  by  a  magnificent 
gesture  granted  the  land  to  a  group  of  friends  who 
employed  the  English  philosopher,  John  Locke,  to  draw 
up  a  form  of  government.  Locke  wrote  an  elaborate 
plan  called  "  The  Fundamental  Constitutions  "  for  the 
Carolinas,  which  divided  the  land  into  provinces, 
counties,  signiories,  and  precincts.     By  this  plan,  the 


Statue  of  Roger  Williams 


62  AMERICAN  DEMOCRACY 

lords,  whom  the  proprietors  had  the  right  to  create 
under  the  name  of  landgraves  and  caciques,  were  to 
own  the  land  and  govern  it  arbitrarily,  without  the  co- 
operation of  the  common  people.  There  were  to  be  as 
many  landgraves  as  there  were  counties  and  twice  as 
many  caciques  and  no  more.  There  were  to  be  leet-men 
and  leet-women,  bound  for  all  generations  to  the  land 
of  their  caciques.  Eight  supreme  courts  to  deal  judg- 
ment, capped  the  whole  fabric.  This  outrageous  docu- 
ment was  formally  accepted  by  the  "  proprietors  "  as 
fundamental  law  for  the  wilderness  of  the  Carolinas. 
As  might  have  been  expected,  the  people  refused  to  be 
governed  by  this  ridiculous  constitution  which  became 
the  subject  of  dispute  for  fifty  years. 

The  first  settlers  of  Georgia  came  in  1732.  They 
were  released  English  debtors  who,  considered  incap- 
able of  taking  part  in  the  government,  were  ruled  by 
a  board  of  trustees.  Slavery  and  rum  were  prohibited 
and  religious  freedom,  except  for  Catholics,  was  per- 
mitted. By  1752  there  were  three  thousand  four  hun- 
dred white  people  in  Georgia  and  one  thousand  one 
hundred  blacks. 

By  the  time  of  the  founding  of  Georgia,  New  Jersey, 
Delaware,  and  Pennsylvania  all  had  some  form  of 
legislative  assembly,  meeting  more  or  less  regularly. 
These  three  complete  the  list  of  the  thirteen  original 
colonies. 

In  1648,  the  first  attempt  at  union  of  the  colonies 
was  made  by  Massachusetts  Bay,  Plymouth,  Connecti- 
cut, and  New  Haven  when  they  formed  "  The  United 
Colonies  of  New  England "  to  protect  themselves 
against  the  Indians  and  the  Dutch  traders  on  the  Hud- 
son. Rhode  Island  was  left  out  because  of  her  "  irre- 
ligious "  tendencies.     This  federation  was  made  with- 


GROWTH  OF  DEMOCRACY  IN  AMERICA       63 

out  asking  anyone's  permission,  the  document  explain- 
ing that  they  took  this  liberty  "  by  reason  of  the  sad 
distractions  in  England."  The  New  England  Confed- 
eration is  of  great  interest,  as  the  first  league  of  Amer- 
ican colonies  made  for  a  common  purpose. 

After  the  Restoration  of  the  Stuarts  in  1660, 
Charles  II  sent  a  royal  governor,  Sir  Edmund  Andros, 
to  rule  over  New  England,  New  York,  and  New  Jersey. 
Considering  the  colonial  charters  too  liberal,  Andros 
attempted  to  seize  them,  but  the  precious  documents 
were  in  some  cases  conveniently  lost.  The  Connecti- 
cut charter  was  hidden  in  a  hollow  tree,  the  famous 
Charter  Oak.  The  early  colonials  were  bent  on 
"  hoarding  the  mouldy  parchments,"  which  guaranteed 
their  liberties. 

And  so  the  story  of  the  thirteen  colonies  goes  —  in 
some  features  alike,  in  others  widely  differing,  but  all 
with  the  same  practice  of  popular  control  of  govern- 
ment and  all  disciplined  by  contests  with  royal  gov- 
ernors. 

THE    BREAK    WITH    ENGLAND 

During  all  this  time  of  settlement  the  colonies  were 
not  one  in  sympathy  or  spirit.  They  had  grown  up 
as  separate  and  distinct  commonwealths,  and  lacked 
any  close  bond  of  interest  or  government.  But  there 
were  movements  toward  federation  and  during  the  years 
of  the  French  and  Indian  War  (1754-1763),  the  peo- 
ple of  the  colonies  grew  to  have  mutual  respect  for 
each  other  while  at  the  same  time  leaders  were  de- 
veloped, who  a  few  years  later,  took  the  first  steps 
toward  independence. 

The  beginning  of  the  strife  that  led  to  the  final 
break  between  the  thirteen  colonies  and  England  fol- 


64  AMERICAN  DEMOCRACY 

lowed  this  war.  It  was  not  a  sudden  thing  —  this 
breaking  away  from  the  mother  country.  It  was 
rather  due  to  a  gradual  change  in  ways  of  living  and 
thinking  and  to  differences  in  governmental  institu- 
tions that  had  been  transplanted  to  America.  In 
America  the  tendency  had  set  toward  greater  democ- 
racy; all  the  people  were  workers,  who  either  actually 
toiled  with  their  hands  or  were  in  administrative  posi- 
tions directing  the  work  of  others.  There  was  no 
strictly  leisure  class. 

It  must  be  remembered  also,  that  by  the  time  of  the 
Revolutionary  War  there  were  various  nationalities 
in  the  colonies  —  Scotch,  German,  French,  Portuguese, 
Swedes,  and  a  large  number  of  Irish.  This  mixture  of 
liberty-loving  people  had  a  great  effect  on  the  develop- 
ment and  spirit  of  American  institutions.  The  old 
bottles  of  Constitutional  forms,  brought  over  from 
England,  held  the  wine  of  a  new  nationalism,  flavored 
and  warmed  by  the  composite  essence  of  many  other 
than  English  strains. 

There  was,  moreover,  among  the  colonists,  even  from 
the  very  beginning,  a  remarkable  manifestation  of  in- 
ventiveness. This  characteristic  has  persisted  so  con- 
tinuously that  the  United  States,  as  a  nation,  may  be 
said  to  possess  the  art  of  finding  a  way  to  do  things. 
Added  to  this  original  power  of  invention  was  a  cer- 
tain childlike. daring  and  absence  of  fear  that  caused 
the  colonists  to  rush  into  new  situations  in  spite  of  evi- 
dent peril  and  cost.  These  traits  of  character  have 
helped  to  make  the  American  a  different  type, from  the 
European. 

In  England,  at  this  time,  a  great  number  of  people 
were  discontented  as  well  as  unrepresented  in  govern- 
ment.    Parliament  was  in  the  hands  of  a  narrow  aris- 


GROWTH  OF  DEMOCRACY  IN  AMERICA      65 

tocracy  which  did  not  or  could  not  get  the  point  of 
view  of  the  colonists.     In  fact,  by  1770,  England  and 
America  had  grown  so  far  apart  that  they  could  no 
longer  understand  each  other.     What  followed  was  in- 
evitable.    The  people  in  the  thirteen  colonies  had  lived 
too  freely  and  fully  to  be  bound  by  laws  not  of  their 
own  making;  they  could  not  brook  the  interference  of 
a  ruler  whose  very  existence  they  sometimes  forgot  or  'i 
ignored,  as  did  the  makers  of  the  Connecticut  Consti- 
tution.    It  was  not  alone  the  tyranny  of  the  English 
King  and  Parliament  that  caused  the  rupture,  "  it  was    I 
the  unquenchable  determination  on  the  part  of  the  colo-     ^ 
i    nists    to    manage    their    own    affairs."     America    was     J 
\  bound  to  be  free.  / 

The  struggle  over  taxation  without  representatit5n 
which  occupies  so  large  a  space  in  the  history  of  the 
break  with  England  was  but  the  outward  expression  of 
the  deep-seated  antagonism  between  the  European  idea 
that  colonies  exist  to  feed  the  mother  country  and  must 
in  no  way  endanger  her  manufacturing  and  commercial 
advantages,  and  the  American  idea  —  then  a  new  and 
startling  one  —  that  colonies  exist  mainly  for  the  bene- 
fit of  the  colonies  themselves.  That  irreconcilable  an- 
tagonism was  the  true  cause  of  the  American  Revolu- 
tion. Fortunately  for  the  world  the  American  idea 
won  on  this  side  of  the  Atlantic. 

The  triumph  of  England  over  France  in  the  French 
and  Indian  War  caused,  in  a  measure,  the  loss  of  Eng- 
land's American  colonies.  The  English  government 
in  the  hands  of  a  small  group  began  to  put  into  opera- 
tion an  aggressive  imperial  policy  by  enforcing  old 
trade  laws  and  adding  new  ones  to  make  the  colonics 
merely  feeders  of  the  mother  country.  Manufacturing 
was  also  restricted  and  the  colonists  forbidden  to  move 


66  AMERICAN  DEMOCRACY 

westward.  Besides  all  this  England  asked  for  a  direct 
contribution  to  help  pay  the  war  debt.  No  doubt 
George  III  felt  that  it  was  only  fair  that  the  colonies 
should  bear  their  portion  of  the  war  debt,  but  instead  of 
going  at  the  matter  of  a  just  apportionment  of  the  bur- 
dens of  the  war  in  the  customary  way,  the  King  and 
Parliament  decided  to  waive  the  custom  of  asking  the 
several  colonial  assemblies  to  consent  to  the  taxes  im- 
posed. Instead  they  put  a  general  direct  stamp  tax  on 
all  the  colonies.  This  famous  "  Stamp  Act  "  was 
passed  in  1765.  The  colonies  at  once  showed  that  they 
were  true  to  their  traditions  and  training.  Their 
English  ancestors  had  fought,  bled,  and  died,  for  the 
right  of  controlling  taxation  and  these  Americans,  bold- 
ly declaring  that  they  possessed  the  rights  common  to 
all  Englishmen,  refused  to  pay  the  tax.  The  little  co- 
lonial assemblies  bristled  with  rage  and  glowed  with 
rhetoric,  not  at  the  amount  of  the  tax,  but  at  the  viola- 
tion of  their  "  immemorial  "  rights.  It  was  then  that 
Patrick  Henry  made  his  "  Caesar  had  his  Brutus  " 
speech  in  the  Virginia  House  of  Burgesses ;  it  was  then 
that  Samuel  Adams,  John  Adams,  John  Hancock,  and 
James  Otis  opened  the  fight  in  New  England,  harking 
back  for  their  precedent  to  Magna  Charta  and  the 
Petition  of  Right. 

Throughout  all  of  the  colonies,  the  greatest  deter- 
mination to  resist  the  tax  prevailed.  Nor  was  it  the 
"best  people "  that  made  the  loudest  protests.  The 
comfortable,  the  well-fed,  the  respectable  were  aghast 
at  the  demonstrations  of  the  "  Sons  of  Liberty,  "  local 
organizations  of  "  common  "  people  in  nearly  all  the 
large  towns  who  paraded  the  streets,  burned  the  offend- 
ing stamps,  and  irreverently  pulled  down  the  King's 
leaden  statue. 


GROWTH  OF  DEMOCRACY  IN  AMERICA       67 

Benjamin  Franklin,  who  was  in  London  at  the  time, 
told  a  committee  of  the  Commons  that  the  colonists 
would  never  submit  to  paying  the  stamp  tax  unless 
compelled  to  do  so  by  force  of  arms.  Massachusetts 
took  the  lead  in  calling  a  Stamp  Act  Congress  to  meet 
at  New  York.  She  found  a  ready  second  in  Virginia. 
In  1775,  delegates  from  nine  colonies  met,  and  follow- 
ing the  English  precedent,  drew  up  a  Declaration  of 
Rights  and  Grievances  which  asserted  that  Parliament 
could  levy  no  taxes  without  the  consent  of  the  people 
who  paid  them. 

THE    AMERICAN    REVOLUTION 

The  Stamp  Tax  was  repealed  largely  through  the 
influence  of  Pitt,  Fox,  Burke,  and  other  liberal  leaders 
in  the  House  of  Commons.  But  the  trouble  was  not 
settled,  because  Parliament  insisted  on  the  principle 
that  England  had  a  right  to  tax  the  colonists.  In  the 
words  of  Lecky,  the  English  historian,  "  from  this  time 
the  conduct  of  the  government  toward  the  American 
Colonies  is  little  more  than  a  series  of  deplorable 
blunders." 

The  Government  suspended  the  colonial  legislatures, 
laid  taxes  on  articles  of  trade,  quartered  soldiers  among 
the  people,  and  refused  to  listen  to  the  respectful  pro- 
tests of  the  colonists,  who  at  first  had  no  thought  of 
breaking  with  England.  During  this  crucial  time,  the 
colonies  were  brought  together  by  the  Committees  of 
Correspondence,  especially  by  the  Massachusetts  Com- 
mittee, headed  by  Samuel  Adams,  and  the  Virginia 
Committee,  whose  chairman  was  Jefferson's  chosen 
friend,  the  youthful  Dabney  Carr. 

At  last,  in  1774,  after  the  passage  of  the  "  Intoler- 
able Acts  "  which  closed  the  port  of  Boston,  revoked 


^ 


68  AMERICAN  DEMOCRACY 

the  Massachusetts  charter,  forbade  town  meetings  and 
sent  political  prisoners  to  England  for  trial,  the  First 
Continental  Congress,  representing  every  colony  except 
Georgia,  met  at  Philadelphia. 

The  men  who  met  in  this  first  representative  assem- 
bly of  all  the  colonies,  were  local  leaders  who  were  fear- 


Lafayette 
He  fought  in  the  cause  of  liberty  for  a  country  not  his  own 

less  and  determined  to  make  their  case  heard.  They 
drew  up  another  "  Declaration  of  Rights  "  including  a 
list  of  grievances;  they  denied  the  right  of  the  English 
Parliament  to  legislate  for  them ;  they  sent  addresses 
to  the  King,  to  the  people  of  Great  Britain,  and  to 
Canada.  These  last  were  examples  of  effective  early 
American  propaganda  calculated  to  break  down  the 
morale  of  the  English  army.  As  a  consequence,  George 
III  found  it  hard  to  secure  English  soldiers  and  was 


GROWTH  OF  DEMOCRACY  IN  AMERICA       69 

compelled  to  employ  hired  mercenaries  from  Hessc- 
Cassel.  This  action  greatly  enraged  the  colonists  and 
helped  to  bring  matters  to  a  crisis. 

The  details  of  the  struggle  need  not  be  told  here. 
Every  American  knows  the  story  of  the  American  Revo- 
lution. Events  followed  rapidly — Lexington,  Con- 
cord, Bunker  Hill,  the  appointment  of  Washington  as 
commander-in-chief,  and  finally  the  Declaration  of  In- 
dependence. As  a  result  of  these  trying  years  of  the 
war,  the  United  States  was  recognized  as  an  independ- 
ent country,  and  a  new  and  shining  star  took  its  place 
among  the  nations  of  the  world. 

THE    CRITICAL    PERIOD 

It  must  not  be  supposed,  however,  that  the  Declara- 
tion of  Independence  with  'its  "  all  men  are  created 
equal,"  was  the  expression  of  the  general  political  prac- 
tice of  the  colonies.  It  would  be  pleasant  to  believe, 
as  many  Americans  do,  that  from  the  first  Fourth  of 
July  every  freeman  in  the  United  States  of  America 
had  the  right  to  vote  and  to  hold  office.  But  the  facts 
will  not  bear  out  this  conif  or  ting  illusion.  The  right 
to  vote,  to  hold  office,  and  to  sit  in  the  legislative  assem- 
bly was  limited  to  those  who  held  property,  who  paid 
taxes,  and  in  most  cfls^cs^  to  those  who  professed  certain 
religions.  In  1776,  of  three  million  people  in  the  thir- 
teen colonies,  about  one-fourth  of  the  males  were  cut 
ofF  from  voting  because  of  property  or  religious  dis- 
ability, or  because  they  were  slaves.  As  is  the  case  to- 
day a  large  percentage  of  those  who  were  entitled  to 
vote  failed  to  take  advantage  of  that  privilege. 

By  the  time  of  the  Rrvolution  there  had  grown  up 
in  the  colonies  a  governing  class  —  persons  especially 
fitted   to   assist  in  government  because  of  "  excellence 


NORTH    AMERICA 

A!r  THE  TIME  OF  THE  TREATY  OF    1783 


V 


->  GROWTH  OF  DEMOCRACY  IN  AMERICA       71 

in  birth  and  education."  This  was  true  particularly 
in  the  South  with  its  county  family  system.  Fortu- 
nately, the  more  democratic  training  of  New  England 
helped  to  counteract  these  aristocratic  tendencies. 
The  success  of  the  colonies  in  forcing  the  English 
government  to  acknowledge  the  new  republic  was  the 
first  step  in  the  vindication  on  American  soil  of  the 
principle  that  the  source  of  government  lies  with  the 
people  governed. 

But  after  the  war  was  won,  the  colonies  learned  that 
peace  has  its  struggles  no  less  trying  than  war.  The 
great  test  of  the  strength,  courage,  and  sagacity  of 
the  citizens  of  the  young  nation  came  to  them  in  the 
critical  period  just  following  the  Revolution.  During 
the  war,  the  states  had  adopted  the  Articles  of  Confed- 
eration as  a  form  of  government.  This  compact  was 
as  unsatisfactory  a  form  of  government  as  can  be 
imagined,  giving  no  real  strength  to  Congress,  which 
while  it  could  create  an  army,  could  not  collect  money 
to  maintain  it.  In  fact,  under  the  Articles,  Congress 
was  merely  an  advisory  committee  wholly  dependent 
on  the  co-operation  of  the  state  legislatures,  and  en- 
tirely helpless  when  they  disagreed. 

While  the  war  w^as  in  progress,  the  states  had  re- 
sponded fairly  well  to  the  demands  of  the  central  gov- 
ernment, but  when  the  heat  of  the  struggle  was  over, 
a  period  of  reaction  came.  While  by  1781  every  state 
had  a  Constitution,  to  which  in  nearly  all  cases  was 
appended  a  Bill  of  Rights,  the  country  as  a  whole  was 
bordering  on  anarchy.  The  one  thing  that  held  the 
colonies  together  from  1783  to  1789  was  the  Western 
lands,  the  great  tract  of  unsettled  country  lying  be- 
yond the  Alleghanies.  Maryland  insisted  that  this  ter- 
ritory become  "  common  stock  to  be  parcelled  out  by 


72  AMERICAN  DEMOCRACY 

Congress  into  free,  convenient,  and  independent  gov- 
ernments," and  that  the  funds  derived  from  the  sale 
of  the  lands  be  used  for  the  common  good.  The  set- 
tlement of  the  question  in  this  manner  established  for 
America  a  new  and  original  colonial  policy,  and  event- 
ually opened  up  the  way  for  permanent  union  of  the 
states. 

But  for  a  time  affairs  kept  going  from  bad  to  worse 
in  spite  of  the  common  possession  of  the  Western  lands. 
Congress  moved  about  from  place  to  place  and  small 
attention  was  paid  to  it.  The  roadways  and  travel 
routes  were  no  better  than  they  had  been  in  the  Revo- 
lutionary days.  Each  state  was  building  for  itself. 
New  York  had  her  own  little  system  of  duties  by  which 
she  bled  her  neighbors.  Rhode  Island  was  equally  self- 
ish in  making  restrictive  laws,  and  other  states  showed 
a  like  spirit. 

THE    PERIOD    OF    CONSTRUCTION 

The  colonists  were  in  a  state  of  restless  excitement; 
their  early  visionary  hopes  of  unlimited  wealth  had 
begun  to  abate,  while  fear  of  a  return  to  monarchy  and 
the  common  ownership  of  all  property  increased  pop- 
ular unrest.  The  thinking  men  of  the  country  felt 
that  something  must  be  done  to  protect  individual 
ownership  and  to  establish  law  and  order.  At  last 
in  1787,  matters  became  so  desperate,  especially  in 
regard  to  trade  regulations,  that  the  memorable  Con- 
stitutional Convention  was  called  at  Philadelphia  to 
^  amend  the  Articles  of  Confederation.  The  Constitu- 
/  tional  Convention  met  in  May,  1787,  and  held  secret 
meetings  for  four  months.  When  the  convention 
opened  its  doors  after  its  final  sitting,  it  gave  to  the 


74  AMERICAN  DEMOCRACY 

public,  as  the  result  of  its  labors,  an  entirely  new  in- 
strument of  government. 

The  Constitution  of  the  United  States  did  not  be- 
stow political  equality  on  all  white  men,  nor  did  the 
men  who  made  it  intend  that  it  should  do  so.  The 
governing  class,  from  which  the  men  of  the  convention 
were  drawn,  distrusted  the  leveling  tendencies  of  a 
wide  extension  of  suffrage.  They  believed  that  the 
common  people  were  too  ignorant  to  be  trusted  witli^ 
a  share  in  the  affairs  of  government.  Nor  did  tfie 
idea  that  woman  wbuld  ever  figure  as  a  factor  in  elec- 
tions occur  to  the  doughty  framers.  It  is  interesting  to 
note  that  because  of  the  haste  with  which  it  was  drafted, 
the  Constitution  of  New  Jersey  had  failed  to  limit 
suffrage  to  males.  This  omission  was  not  corrected 
for  fifty  years,  and  during  that  period  a  few  strong- 
minded,  property-owning  gentlewomen  insisted  upon 
their  right  to  vote.  Finally  the  constitution  was 
amended  and  thereafter  "  females  "  were  kept  from  the 
polls  until  very  recent  years. 

GROWTH    OF    DEMOCRACY 

At  the  close  of  the  Revolution,  no  state  of  the  thir- 
teen gave  unlimited  suffrage  to  men.  In  1802,  the 
Constitution  of  Ohio,  the  first  state  to  be  carved  from 
the  Western  lands,  granted  the  privilege  of  voting  and 
of  holding  office  to  all  white  males  above  the  age  of 
twenty-one  who  had  resided  in  the  state  for  one  year 
and  who  paid  state  or  county  tax.  This  was  a  big 
step  in  the  advance  of  popular  government.  Within 
the  first  forty  years  of  the  nineteenth  century  nearly 
all  the  states  excepting  the-  slave  states  of  the  South, 
attained  practically  manhood  suffrage.  The  states 
which  were  admitted  after  the  adoption  of  the  Consti- 


GROWTH  OF  DEMOCRACY  IN  AMERICA       75 

tution  imitated  Ohio's  liberal  example ;  the  older  states 
followed.  In  1830,^  during  Jackson's  administration, 
largely  because  of  the  now  almost  forgotten  labor 
movement  of  those  days,  suffrage  was  extended  to  such 
a  degree  that  the  phrase  "  Jacksonian  democracy  "  has- 
remained  to  mark  the  period.  Jackson  also  increased 
the  power  of  the  President  by  his  liberal  use  of  the 
Presidential  veto.  By  this  time  property  qualifica- 
tions and  religious  tests  had  been  removed,  and  direct 
election  of  state  governors  had  become  the  rule.  The 
"  Sovereign  People  "  now  at  last  began  to  factor  as 
the  real  power  behind  the  government. 

The  War  of  Secession  would  seem  to  have  completed 
the  democratization  of  the  whole  country  but,  as  a  mat- 
ter of  fact,  nine-tenths  of  the  negroes  in  the  South 
are  at  the  present  time  disqualified  from  suffrage  on  one 
ground  or  another;  and  women,  who  have  always  made 
up  more  than  one-half  the  adult  population  of  the 
United  States,  were,  for  one  hundred  thirty-three  years 
after  the  adoption  of  the  Constitution,  debarred  from 
complete  participation  in  the  management  of  the  politi- 
cal affairs  of  city,  state,  and  nation.  ^^ 

The  growth  of  a  more  thorough-going  democracy  A 
in  the  United  States  was  helped  by  many  forces  besides  / 
the  development  of  the  idea  of  popular  suffrage.  The 
free  land  in  the  west,  the  labor  movements,  and  the 
growth  of  education  were  among  these  influences. 
While  these  movements  cannot  be  separated  at  any 
one  place  from  the  events  that  accompanied  them,  they 
should  be  looked  at  by  themselves  in  order  that  the 
history  of  our  government  may  be  better  understood. 

Strange  to  say,  the  House  of  Representatives  in 
which  the  Constitutional  Convention  had  unlimited 
faith  has   suffered   a  partial   eclipse,  while  a   trust  in 


76 


AMERICAN  DEMOCRACY 


the  good  sense  and  good  will  of  the  people  has  steadily 
increased.  This  growing  belief  in  democracy  has  in 
fact  proved  to  be  the  main  influence  in  our  government. 
1840  saw  the  final  disappearance  from  American  poli- 
tics of  an  open  belief  in  aristocracy.  If  it  remains  a 
political  tenet  of  any  individual  or  party,  it  is  wisely 
kept  in  the  background. 


The  Charter  Oak 


CHAPTER  IV 
THE  GREAT  DOCUMENTS  OF  LIBERTY 

It  is  significant  —  significant  of  their  own  cliaracter  and  pur- 
pose and  of  the  influences  they  were  setting  afoot  —  that  Wash- 
ington and  his  associates,  lilie  the  Barons  of  Runnymede,  spoke 
and  acted  not  for  a  class,  but  for  a  people.  It  has  been  left  for 
us  to  see  to  it  that  it  shall  be  understood  that  they  spoke  and 
acted  not  for  a  single  people  only,  but  for  all  mankind. 

Woodrow  Wilson  —  July  4,  1918. 

In  the  study  of  the  history  of  the  development  of 
popular  government,  there  occur  again  and  again  refer- 
ences to  certain  great  documents  of  liberty  which  have 
been  notable  sign-posts  on  the  road  toward  democracy. 
Indeed,  the  written  word  has  from  the  very  earliest 
times  played  an  important  and  interesting  part  in  that 
development.  From  the  days  when  the  caveman  with 
skill  in  expressing  his  ideas  in  pictures  or  written  char- 
acters wielded  *an  influence  over  his  stronger  brothers, 
anything  that  has  been  committed  to  writing  has  at- 
tached to  itself  dignity  and  significance  because  of  its 
fixed  and  permanent  form. 

The  great  documents  that  are  of  special  interest  to 
Americans  are  Magna  Charta,  the  Petition  of  Right, 
the  Declaration  of  Independence,  the  Constitution  of 
the  United  States,  and  the  Emancipation  Proclamation. 
Every  one  of  these  five  great  state  papers  was  the  re- 
sult of  a  crucial  national  struggle.  They  came  into 
being  because  of  the  intrepid  courage  of  bold  leaders 
in  the  cause  of  freedom,  men  who  contended  for  liberty 
with  the  eloquence  of  justice,  in  each  case  backed  bv 

77 


78  AMERICAN  DEMOCRACY 

the  opinion  of  a  majority  of  the  people  of  the  nation 
which  they  represented. 

MAGNA    CHARTA,    1215 

Magna  Charta,  the  first  of  the  great  documents,  is 
written  in  Latin  and  is  well  worth  reading  either  in 
the  original  or  in  an  English  translation.  It  is  an 
extremely  business-like  treaty  of  peace,  for  that  is  what 
it  really  was.  There  was  nothing  in  it  that  was  new. 
The  laws  set  down  were  the  customary  laws  for  all 
Englishmen,  but  the  placing  of  these  laws  in  writing, 
on  the  demand  of  a  portion  of  the  people,  was  new  and 
significant ;  for  the  barons  claimed  and  secured  the 
rights  not  only  of  nobles  and  churchmen,  but  of  free- 
holders and  merchants,  of  townsmen  and  villagers  as 
well.  The  signing  of  Magna  Charta  marks  the  step 
from  traditional  laws,  that  is,  from  laws  that  are 
merely  customs,*  to  statutory  laws,  or  laws  that  are 
written  and  sanctioned  by  the  government.  In  fact. 
Magna  Charta  was  the  beginning  of  written  and  defined 
English  law. 

In  the  discussion  of  Magna  Charta,  two  provisions 
are  usually  emphasized.  One  of  these  guaranteed  the 
right  of  every  freeman  to  a  fair  and  prompt  trial  by 
jury  on  a  definite  charge,  and  the  other  gave  to  the 
Council  of  the  realm  the  right  to  impose  taxes.  These 
two  are,  in  truth,  the  great  clauses  of  the  Charter, 
though  they  were  not  considered  of  unusual  import- 
ance to  the  determined  men  who  coerced  King  John. 
The  barons  and  the  freemen  of  that  time  realized  some- 
thing of  the  weight  of  the  first  clause,  which  took  from 
the  King  and  his  retainers  power  over  the  person  of 
an  individual,  but  no  one  had  any  idea  of  the  future 
significance  of  the  second,  which  made  the  King  finan- 


THE  GREAT  DOCUMENTS  OF  LIBERTY      79 

cially  helpless  unless  the  council  which  later  came  to 
represent  the  people  approved  of  his  expenditures. 

But  these  two  articles,  weighty  though  they  are,  do 
not  make  up  the  whole  of  Magna  Charta.  As  a  matter 
of  fact,  the  document  is  long,  containing  sixty-two 
articles  and  covering  many  pages.  Most  of  it  is  of 
merely  incidental  interest  and  pertains  to  the  relation 
of  the  barons  and  the  king,  to  matters  of  inheritance, 
guardianship,  and  the  payment  of  feudal  dues.  There 
are  other  articles,  however,  which  have  had  a  lasting  in- 
fluence. For  instance,  the  statement  in  Article  17,  that 
"  common  pleas  shall  not  follow  our  court,  but  shall 
be  held  at  any  place,"  meant  much  to  all  Englishmen. 
Before  this  time  claimants  for  justice  had  been  com- 
pelled to  move  about  after  the  king's  court.  After 
Magna  Charta,  the  place  of  the  courts  was  fixed  and 
the  immediate  influence  of  the  king  removed. 

Magna  Charta  contains  a  provision  regarding  the 
payment  of  debts  to  Jews;  a  provision  for  uniform 
measures  —  dry,  wet,  and  linear ;  a  provision  standard- 
izing the  breadth  of  dyed  cloth;  and  a  provision  pro- 
hibiting the  unlawful  forcing  of  towns  and  individuals 
to  build  bridges  and  embankments.  One  provision  re- 
lates to  the  ownership  of  the  tools  of  production,  a 
problem  that  is  one  of  the  serious  questions  of  our  own 
time.  The  king,  the  sheriff's,  and  the  barons  were  for- 
bidden to  take  horses  or  carts  from  any  freeman  with- 
out his  consent;  nor  was  any  freeman  to  be  despoiled 
of  the  firewood  which  he  had  laboriously  collected 
against  the  coming  winter.  One  can  readily  imagine 
the  lordly  king's  sheriff*  demanding  the  plow-horse  or 
the  ox-team  of  honest  Hodge  who  perchance  was  at 
the  time  in  the  midst  of  harvesting. 

A  provision   concerning  the  safety  and   security   of 


80  AMERICAN  DEMOCRACY 

merchants  coming  into  and  going  out  of  England  was 
an  early  attempt  at  removal  of  unjust  economic  bar- 
riers. In  the  provision,  "  we  will  not  make  justiciars, 
constables,  sheriffs,  or  bailiffs,  excepting  such  as  know 
the  laws  of  the  land  and  are  well  disposed  to  observe 
them,"  Magna  Charta  made  the  faint  beginnings  of 
the  profession  of  law.  By  the  provisions  of  Magna 
Charta  the  towns  were  secured  in  their  privileges  and 
protected  against  unjust  taxation;  they  were  confirmed 
in  the  right  to  regulate  their  trade  and  to  hold  munic- 
ipal meetings. 

Article  60,  one  of  the  great  provisions  of  the  Charter 
pointing  toward  democracy,  reads:  "Also  all  these 
customs  and  liberties  aforesaid,  which  we  have  granted 
to  be  held  in  our  kingdom,  for  so  much  of  it  as  belongs 
to  us,  all  our  subjects,  as  well  clergy  as  laity,  shall 
observe  towards  their  tenants  as  far  as  concerns  them." 
This  meant  equal  law  to  all  freemen  whether  nobles  or 
commoners. 

Article  61  was  the  straw  that  broke  the  camel's 
back,  as  far  as  the  King  was  concerned,  for  by  its 
provision,  John  was  put  under  the  guardianship  of 
twenty-five  elected  barons,  and  in  case  he  failed  to 
keep  his  promise,  the  "  said  five  and  twenty  barons 
together  with  the  community  of  the  whole  kingdom  " 
could  rightfully  make  war  upon  him,  provided  always 
his  majesty's  royal  person  was  kept  from  harm.  By 
this  article,  civil  war  was  made  legal.  The  document 
closes  with  the  names  of  the  "  barones  electi,"  De  Clare, 
Albemarle,  Glover,  Hereforden,  Robert  de  Vere,  Wil- 
liam Marshall,  Richard  of  Percy,  William  of  Hunting- 
ford,  and  the  rest,  the  men  w^hose  strong  task  it  was  to 
see  to  it  that  the  terms  of  the  Charter  were  carried 
out. 


King  John   Is   Forced  to   Accept  Magna  Charta   1215 


82  AMERICAN  DEMOCRACY 

The  barons  had  John  at  their  mercy,  but  they  de- 
manded no  punitive  indemnities,  restoration,  nor  resti- 
tution. They  stood  firm  to  their  demands  for  their 
own  rights,  and  made  safe  to  the  tiller  of  the  soil  his 
ox  and  his  wain ;  to  the  merchant,  protection  and  sale ; 
to  the  consumer,  uniform  weights  and  measures ;  and 
to  all  men,  trial  by  jury  on  a  distinct  charge. 

One  may  be  sure  that  of  all  who  witnessed  that  great 
scene  at  Runnymede,  not  one  of  the  retainers  and 
men-at-arms  who  stood  idly  about,  not  one  of  the  frown- 
ing barons,  not  even  the  fearless  and  scholarly  Lang- 
ton,  least  of  all  John  himself,  was  moved  by  prophetic 
warnings  of  the  significance  to  future  democracy  of 
that  written  guarantee  of  the  liberties  of  a  people. 

The  barons  believed  in  "  openness  of  treaties,  openly 
arrived  at,"  and  that  "  treaties  should  be  made  known 
in  their  entirety  "  to  the  rest  of  the  kingdom.  In  the 
carrying  out  of  this  fair  and  candid  policy,  copies 
of  the  Charter  were  sent  out  to  be  sworn  to  in  every 
hundred  court  and  shire  moot  in  the  kingdom. 

In  the  British  Museum  a  priceless  copy  of  the  orig- 
inal Magna  Charta  is  sacredly  guarded.  Blackened 
and  discolored  by  time,  it  attests  the  indestructibility 
of  a  written  promise  which  stands  as  the  visible  evidence 
of  a  solemn  agreement  made  under  oath.  That  Magna 
Charta  was  deemed  an  inviolable  pledge  of  liberties  is 
evidenced  by  the  fact  that  during  the  greater  part  of 
the  thirteenth  century,  the  bishops  twice  a  year  in  the 
great  Hall  of  Westminster  solemnly  pronounced  excom- 
munication against 

Who  so  lays  his  hand  on  these 
England's  ancient  liberties, 
Who  so  breaks,  by  word  or  deed, 
England's  vow  at  Runnymede.i 
1  Whittier. 


THE  GREAT  DOCUMENTS  OF  LIBERTY     83 

But  in  spite  of  the  curse  laid  upon  charter-breakers, 
Magna  Charta  was  broken  and  renewed  thirty-seven 
times,  often,  as  was  the  case  with  Henry  III,  by  the 
same  King  again  and  again.  Nevertheless  from  1215 
to  the  present  day.  Magna  Charta  has  proved  a  strong 
weapon  against  tyrannical  oppression. 

THE    PETITION    OF    RIGHT 1628 

The  "  Petition  of  Right "  which  was  signed  by 
Charles  I,  the  second  Stuart,  in  1628,  more  than  four 
hundred  years  after  Runnymede,  was  a  bold  and 
straight  forward  setting  forth  of  the  wrongs  done  to 
the  people  by  their  sovereign^It  took  up  undeV  eleven 
heads  the  grievances  of  the  realm  against  the  King; 
rehearsed  the  privileges  of  Magna  Charta,*especially  in 
relation  to  the  levying  of  taxes  without  legal  authority; 
referred  to  the  laws  of  Edward  III,  which  specifically 
forbade  false  imprisonment;  charged  the  King  with 
direct  violation  of  these  and  other  rights ;  remonstrated 
against  the  billeting  of  soldiers  in  private  houses, 
"  against  the  custom  of  this  realm  " ;  and  finally  prayed 
the  King  "  most  humbly  "  to  be  "  graciously  pleased  " 
to  grant  their  "  petition  "  by  signing  it.  This  virtual 
demand  —  for  it  was  that  rather  than  a  petition  —  was 
written  in  English  that  seems  very  like  our  own,  with 
little  attempt  at  felicity  of  phrase,  but  with  quiet  dig- 
nity and  sanity. 

The  Petition  of  Right,  like  Magna  Charta,  was 
wrung  from  the  King  by  Parliament  after  years  of 
determined  insistence  that  that  body  and  not  the  King 
was  the  source  of  power.  Sir  John  Eliot  showed  no 
less  valor  than  did  Stephen  Langton  and  again  the 
bulk  of  the  nation  supported  the  attack  on  the  prerog- 
ative of  the  King.     The  scene  that  preceded  the  sign- 


84  AMERICAN  DEMOCRACY 

ing  is  thus  described  in  a  letter  of  the  time.  "  Then 
appeared  such  a  spectacle  of  passions  as  the  like  had 
seldom  been  seen  in  siich  an  assembly ;  some  weeping, 
some  expostulating,  some  prophesying  of  the  fatal  ruin 
of  our  kingdom.  There  were  above  a  hundred  weep- 
ing eyes,  many  who  offered  to  speak  being  interrupted 
and  silenced  by  their  own  passions." 

At  last  the  King  gave  way,  and  after  writing  the 
customary,  "  Let  it  be  done  as  is  desired,"  affixed  his 
name  to  the  waiting  paper.  At  once  there  followed 
great  rejoicing  throughout  the  land;  bells  were  rung, 
bonfires  blazed,  and  London  went  wild  with  joy. 

Magna  Charta  and  the  Petition  of  Right  are  the 
most  precious  of  the  Charters  of  English  Liberties. 
Each  granted  or  reaffirmed  certain  fundamental  rights 
to  freemen.  The  justice  that  these  documents  recog- 
nized was  not  for  a  class  or  a  creed,  but  for  all  men. 
Because  of  this,  they  deserve  to  be  remembered  by  every 
freeman. 

THE  DECLARATION  OF  INDEPENDENCE,  1776 

When  Thomas  Jefferson  wrote  the  Declaration  of 
Independence,  he  was  thirty-three  years  old.  His  ac- 
count of  the  circumstances  accompanying  the  making 
and  adoption  of  this  great  state  paper  is  modest  and 
simple.  "  The  committee  for  drawing  the  Declaration 
of  Independence  desired  me  to  do  it.  It  was  accord- 
ingly done." 

Jefferson  put  into  the  Declaration  of  Independence 
ideas  that  had  been  expressed  in  the  Bill  of  Ricrhts 
of  the  Virginia  State  Constitution  earlier  in  the  same 
year.  Jefferson  clothed  these  ideas  of  the  rights  of 
man  and  of  the  source  of  government  in  fitting  and 
noble  language,  which,  together  with  the  dramatic  man- 


THE  GREAT  DOCUMENTS  OF  LIBERTY      85 

ner  of  its  presentation  to  the  world  and  the  happy 
settlement  of  the  issue,  has  made  it  a  lasting  heritage 
to  all  lovers  of  human  liberty.  When  JefFerson  had 
finished  his  draft  of  the  Declaration,  he  showed  it  to 
the  other  members  of  the  committee  —  John  Adams, 


Pliotograph  from  Underwood  and  Underwood 

Thomas  Jefferson,  with  Other  Members  of  the  Committee  ox 
THE  Declaration  of  Independence,  Laying  Draft  before 
the  Continental  Congress. 

From  a  painting  by  Trumbull  in  thp.  Capitol  at  Washington 


Benjamin  Franklin,  Roger  Sherman,  Robert  Living- 
stone. They  made  but  few  minor  changes.  Not  so 
when  the  committee  reported  Jefferson's  draft  to  the 
"  Committee  of  the  Whole."  Every  sentence  was  care- 
fully scanned ;  every  clause  polished  to  perfection ;  not 
a  word  escaped  scrutiny. 


86  AMERICAN  DEMOCRACY 

The  Declaration  of  Independence,  as  it  was  adopted, 
after  scrupulous  changes  and  excisions,  is  a  master- 
piece of  state-craft.  It  is  direct,  simple,  business-like, 
dignified,  and  final.  It  opens  with  the  familiar  state- 
ment of  the  reasons  for  severing  relations  with  Great 
Britain,  thus  publicly  set  forth  because  of  "  a  decent 
respect  for  the  opinion  of  mankind."  The  Declaration 
proceeds,  in  a  nobly  earnest  manner,  to  lay  down  the 
principles  upon  which  the  colonies  based  their  right  to 
institute  a  new  government. 

The  chief  of  these  principles,  "  Governments  are  in- 
stituted among  men,  deriving  their  just  powers  from 
the  consent  of  the  governed,"  is  the  great  contribution 
of  the  Declaration  to  democratic  government,  "  the 
sacred  jewel  "  of  the  whole.  Americans  have  long  held 
it  as  the  foundation  principle  of  government ;  have 
held  it  as  a  theory,  even  though  it  has  not  always  been 
realized  in  practice.  But,  like  the  Golden  Rule,  which 
men  too  often  fail  to  follow,  it  yet  remains  a  goal  of  fair 
dealing  to  be  striven  for. 

The  instrument  goes  on  to  acknowledge  that  "  Gov- 
ernments long  established  should  not  be  changed  for 
light  and  transient  causes  " —  but  that  under  the  policy 
of  "  Absolute  Despotism  "  which  had  been  persisted  in 
by  the  English  government,  it  has  become  the  duty  of 
the  colonies  "  to  throw  off  such  Government  and  pro- 
vide new  Guards  for  their  future  security." 

Then  follows  a  list  of  specific  charges  against  the 
"  present  King  of  Great  Britain,"  published  to  a  "  can- 
did world."  According  to  the  Dedaration,  George 
III  had  violated  both  Magna  Charta  and  the  Petition 
of  Right,  documents  with  which  the  well-trained  men  of 
the  Continental  Congress  were  thoroughly  acquainted. 

The  list  of  grievances  is  followed  by  a  paragraph 


THE  GREAT  DOCUMENTS  OF  LIBERTY      87 


setting  forth  the  repeated  attempts  of  the  colonies  to 
gain  redress :  "  In  every  stage  of  these  oppressions  we 
have  petitioned  for  Redress  in  the  most  humble  terms : 


^^ 


StqL 


^^ 


Facsimile  of  the  Signatures  ox  the  Declaratiox  of 
Independence 

our  repeated  Petitions  have  been  answered  only  by 
repeated  injury."  The  Declaration  hesitates  not  to 
register  condemnation  of  the  "  British  Brethren  "  whose 


88  AMERICAN  DEMOCRACY 

"native  justice  and  magnanimity"  had  been  appealed 
to  in  vain,  but  who  had  remained  "  deaf  to  the  voice  of 
justice  and  of  consanguinity,'*  an  indifference  and 
neglect  which  made  it  necessary  that  the  colonies  "  hold 
them  as  the  rest  of  mankind,  Enemies  in  War,  in  Peace, 
Friends." 

Into  the  lines  of  the  "  Enabling  Act  "  which  created 
the  United  States  of  America,  Jefferson  packed  the 
whole  of  Magna  Charta  and  the  other  great  English 
documents  of  liberty.  But  he  went  much  farther  than 
those  noble  predecessors;  he  put  forth  a  set  of  prin- 
ciples that  America  has  ever  since  been  trying  to  prove 
workable  with  steadily  increasing  promise  of  success. 

In  a  greater  degree  than  do  Magna  Charta  and  the 
Petition  of  Right,  Jefferson's  masterpiece  shows  a  re- 
serve, a  dignity,  and  a  sureness  of  grounds  upon  which 
the  Signers  took  an  unalterable  stand.  When  they  ap- 
pended their  names  to  the  document  they  were  not  un- 
mindful of  the  solemnity  of  the  occasion.  Those  eight- 
eenth century  gentlemen  in  buff  and  blue  coats,  knee 
breeches,  buckled  slippers,  and  curled  wigs  were  en- 
gaged in  a  desperate  undertaking.  They,  like  the  bar- 
ons of  Runnymede,  and  the  Parliament  under  Sir  John 
Eliot,  were  arrayed  against  their  acknowledged  sov- 
ereign, but  they,  unlike  the  others,  had  reached  the 
point  where  compromise  was  impossible.  The  vote  for 
the  Declaration  was  affirmative  and  doubtless  the  hands 
of  the  men  who  put  their  signatures  to  the  great  docu- 
ment trembled  beneath  their  falling  laces.  The  list  at 
the  end  of  the  Declaration,  headed  by  the  boldly  defiant 
signature  of  John  Hancock,  is  familiar  to  Americans 
who  scan  the  noble  roll  in  the  hope  of  finding  some 
ancestral  trace  of  their  own  names.  For  while  it  has 
proved  a  distinction  to  be  a  descendant  of  a  Signer,  at 


THE  GREAT  DOCUMENTS  OF  LIBERTY     89 

the  time  of  the  Declaration,  every  man  of  them  was  a 
felon  in  the  eyes  of  English  law. 

THE    AMERICAN    CONSTITUTION 

But  the  Declaration,  great  though  it  be,  is  yet  not 
the  most  precious  documentary  legacy  to  which  Ameri- 
cans are  heirs.  The  Constitution  of  the  United  States, 
the  fundamental  law  of  the  land,  must  be  placed  above 
it  as  above  any  other  document  connected  with  Amer- 
ican history.  The  narrative  of  its  formation,  the  most 
important  of  its  provisions,  and  the  changes  in  inter- 
pretation that  have  been  read  into  it,  are  matters  which 
every  American  should  know  in  full  and  complete 
detail. 

THE    EMANCIPATION    PROCLAMATION,    1863 

The  one  great  stain  on  the  Constitution  by  which 
"  other  persons  "  were  denied  the  rights  of  man,  was 
blotted  out  by  the  hand  of  Abraham  Lincoln,  when, 
in  1863,  he  issued  the  third  of  the  great  American 
Documents  of  Freedom.  Lincoln  knew  from  the  very 
beginning  of  the  war  that  he  would  have  to  deal  a 
death-blow  to  slavery  in  order  to  insure  success  for 
the  North;  he  but  waited  the  right  moment  to  act. 
After  due  consideration,  he  decided  to  go  to  the  ex- 
treme length  of  his  prerogative  as  Commander-in-chief 
of  the  army  and  navy,  and  hit  "  slavery  hard  "  by  set- 
ting the  slaves  free.  He  fully  understood  that  the 
Constitution  of  the  United  States  granted  him  no  such 
specific  power,  but  he  deliberately  assumed  the  power 
for  an  unprecedented  act.  By  the  advice  of  his  Cab- 
inet, he  waited  until  the  North  should  gain  a  signal 
victory.  Antietam  brought  it  in  September  of  1862. 
At    once   Lincoln    issued    a    preliminary    proclamation 


90  AMERICAN  DEMOCRACY 

which  was  approved  by  the  House  of  Representatives 
as  "  a  well-chosen  war-measure,"  and  an  "  exercise  of 
power  with  proper  regard  for  the  rights  of  the  states 
and  the  perpetuity  of  a  free  government."  The  public 
proclamation  was  issued  January  1,  1863.  This  act 
made  the  name  of  Abraham  Lincoln  immortal. 

The  Emancipation  Proclamation  is  a  brief  document 
without  any  of  the  grace  of  lengthened  phrase  that 
marks  the  Declaration  of  Independence.  It  is  a 
Lincoln  pronouncement,  concise,  clear,  yet  mellow. 
The  word  ''  slave  "  is  not  minced,  nor  is  any  excuse  or 
palliation  offered  for  the  drastic  act  of  Emanci- 
pation. 

When  he  sent  forth  the  great  message  to  the  world, 
Lincoln  rightly  trusted  that  the  people  of  the  United 
States  would  support  his  assumption  of  power.  Sur- 
rounded by  the  members  of  his  Cabinet  which  was  di- 
vided in  its  support  of  him,  the  great  President  set  his 
name  to  the  state  paper  that  was  to  be  given  to  the 
world  through  the  press.  Nor  for  one  instant  did  he 
falter,  though'  he  knew  that  his  act  would  shake  the 
nation  to  its  very  foundation. 

"  Now,  therefore,  I,  Abraham  Lincoln,  President  of 
the  United  States,  by  virtue  of  the  power  in  me  vested 
as  commander-in-chief  of  the  army  and  navy,  in  time  of 
actual  armed  rebellion  against  the  authority  and  Gov- 
ernment of  the  United  States,  and  as  a  fit  and  necessary 
war  measure  for  suppressing  said  rebellion,"  the  main 
clause  of  the  Proclamation  reads,  and  later  continues, 
"  and  by  virtue  of  the  power  and  for  the  purpose  afore- 
said, I  do  order  and  declare  that  all  persons  held  as 
slaves  are  and  henceforward  shall  be  free."  It  closes: 
"  And  upon  this  act,  sincerely  believed  to  be  an  act  of 
justice,  warranted  by  the  Constitution  upon  military 


THE  GREAT  DOCUMENTS  OF  LIBERTY     91 

necessity,  I  invoke  the  considerate  judgment  of  mankind 
and  the  gracious  favor  of  Almighty  God." 

By   the   Emancipation,   Abraham  Lincoln   freed  the 


.4bl^ 


The  Great  Emancipator 

From  a  photograph  of  the  Freedmen's  Memorial  Statue,  in  Lincoln 
Square,  Washington,  designed  hy  Thomas  Ball.  The  figure  kneeling  at 
Lincoln's  feet  represents  Archer  Alexander,  at  one  time  a  fugitive  slave. 


slaves  in  the  states  and  territories  that  were  in  rebel- 
lion. The  generations  of  Americans  that  have  followed 
have  not  revoked  his  act  nor  questioned  the  unusual 
use  of  his  prerogative.     The  opinion  of  mankind  gen- 


92  AMERICAN  DEMOCRACY 

erallj  has  set  the  seal  of  approval  upon  his  assump- 
tion of  extraordinary  power. 

This  completes  the  list  of  great  historical  documents 
to  date.  They  form  a  noble  heritage  to  be  treasured 
and  passed  on  to  coming  generations.  They  are  the 
handwritings  on  the  wall  left  by  those  who  fought  in 
the  long  battle  of  brain,  mind,  and  tongue,  often  un- 
noticed and  unapplauded,  often  hindered  by  the  cutting 
criticisms  of  partisan  or  petty  personal  jealousy,  or  by 
strong  political  opposition.  Such  a  strife  requires  as 
high  a  form  of  courage  as  that  displayed  where  lead 
and  steel  deal  jout  terrible  death  in  a  thousand  grisly 
forms.  For,  when  the  roar  of  guns  has  been  stilled,  the 
legal  battle  must  be  carried  on.  The  road  leads  .up 
hill  all  the  way  and  there  can  be  no  pause  for  rest  if 
government  by  the  people  is  to  persist. 

PRINCIPLES    OF    JUST    GOVERNMENT 

On  October  26,  1918,  during  the  last  year  of  the 
Great  War,  there  gathered  in  Independence  Hall  in 
Philadelphia  a  strange  group  of  men,  drawn  to  that 
cradle  of  Constitutional  liberty  by  the  memory  of  the 
past.  They  took  their  stations  near  the  Liberty  Bell, 
apparently  believing  with  an  almost  pathetic  faith  that 
the  very  place  would  help  them  to  carry  out  their  stead- 
fast, forward-looking  purposes.  They  were  men  whose 
names  smacked  not  of  Anglo-Norman  or  colonial 
descent;  not  the  De  Clares,  Percys,  Huntenfelds,  Bi- 
gods,  and  Marshalls  of  Magna  Charta;  nor  yet  the 
Hancocks,  Lees,  Franklins,  Carrolls,  Dickensons, 
and  Adamses  of  the  Declaration.  There  were  gathered 
Thomas  G.  Masaryk  of  Czecho-Slovakia,  Nicholas  Ceg- 
linsky  of  the  Ukraine,  Bogumil  Voznjak,  a  Jugo-Slav, 
Vasile    Stoica    of    Roumania,    Gregory   Zsatkovick    of 


THE  GREAT  DOCUMENTS  OF  LIBERTY     93 

Uhro-Rusin,  and  a  number  of  others,  representative  of 
the  oppressed  nationalities  of  Central  Europe  —  Bohe- 
mians, Slovaks,  Poles,  Ukranians,  Lithuanians,  Greeks, 
Albanians,  Italian  Irridestists,  Zionists,  Armenians. 
Under  the  friendly  protection  of  the  Great  Republic 
of  the  West,  they  set  forth  a  list  of  noble  principles 
for  the  settlement  of  the  vexed  question  of  the  source 
of  a  just  government  of  fifty  millions  of  people  from 
the  chain  of  nations  lying  between  the  Baltic,  the  Adri- 
atic, and  the  Black  seas. 

The  Declaration  made  by  these  men  laid  down  the 
principle  that  governments  derive  their  just  powers 
from  the  consent  of  the  governed ;  that  any  people  has 
the  inalienable  right  to  organize  its  own  government; 
that  kindred  peoples  should  cooperate  for  common  wel- 
fare ;  that  a  league  of  the  civilized  nations  of  the  world 
should  enter  into  a  common  and  binding  agreement  to 
secure  justice  and  peace  for  all  men. 

The  Declaration  rehearsed  the  wrongs  suffered  at  the 
hands  of  autocratic  dynasties ;  it  mentioned  many  ''  an- 
cient wrongs."  "  We  have  been  deprived  of  proper 
representation  and  fair  trial ;  we  have  been  denied  the 
right  of  free  speech,  and  the  right  freely  to  assemble 
and  petition  for  the  redress  of  our  grievances ;  we  have 
been  denied  free  and  friendly  intercourse  with  our  sister 
states ;  and  our  men  have  been  impressed  in  war  against 
their  brothers  and  friends  of  kindred  races." 

"  Proper  representation,"  "  fair  trial,"  "  free 
speech,"  "  right  of  free  assembly,"  "  right  to  petition," 
"  redress  of  grievances,"  how  often  since  the  days  of 
Magna  Charta  have  the  changes  been  rung  on  those 
worn  phrases.  These  20th  century  Framers  were  evi- 
dently students  of  the  Great  Historic  Documents  of 
Liberty    of   the   English   and    the   American    peoples. 


94.  AMERICAN  DEMOCRACY 

Their  Declaration  of  the  Rights  of  Nations  was  a  fit- 
ting summary  of  the  subject  of  popular  government. 
And  though  since  the  Great  War  some  of  these  very 
peoples  have  shown  signs  of  a  greed  as  rapacious,  and 
an  intolerance  as  severe  as  that  of  any  ancient  or  mod- 
ern autocracy,  the  justice  that  they  demanded  for 
themselves  in  their  days  of  evil  fortune  is  the  unchange- 
able justice  that  in  the  end  must  be  accorded  to  all 
'aspirant  nations  who  desire  liberty  and  a  government 
of  their  own  choosing. 


CHAPTER  V 

THE  MAKING  OF  THE  CONSTITUTION  OF 
THE  UNITED  STATES 

We  know  what  Master  laid  thy  keel, 
What  Workmen  wrought  thy  ribs  of  steel, 
Who  made  each  mast,  and  sail,  and  rope, 
What  anvils  rang,  what  hammers  beat, 
In  what  a  forge  and  what  a  heat 
Were  shaped  the  anchors  of  thy  hope! 

E.  W.  Longfellow. 

The  Constitution  of  the  United  States  of  America  did 
not  have  the  dramatic  birth  of  the  Declaration  of  Inde- 
pendence. Its  drafting  was  not  the  work  of  one  man, 
but  of  half  a  hundred  men.  Even  its  wording  had  a 
composite  origin.  It  was  the  product  of  the  practical 
experience  of  statesmen  with  widely  differing  opinions, 
earnestly  bent  on  making  a  form  of  government  that 
would  meet  the  varied  needs  of  a  great  people  and 
gain  their  united  approval. 

THE    CONSTITUTIONAL    CONVENTION 

The  Constitution  was  drawn  up  by  representatives 
sent  from  the  several  states  to  amend  the  Articles  of 
Confederation  in  such  a  way  as  to  make  possible  a 
stable  government  of  the  new  United  States.  In  May, 
1787,  this  Constitutional  Convention  met  at  Philadel- 
phia in  the  hall  Where  the  Declaration  of  Independence 
had  been  signed.  Wanting  in  the  picturesqueness 
which  set  off  that  previous  gathering,  and  shorn  of  the 

95 


96  AMERICAN  DEMOCRACY 

glittering  trappings  that  used  to  be  associated  with 
military  pomp,  the  Constitutional  Convention  waged, 
nevertheless,  one  of  the  noblest  conflicts  in  American 
History.  The  Convention  was  a  remarkable  gather- 
ing of  notable  persons,  many  of  whom  had  been  engaged 
in  the  perilous  fight  for  independence  since  the  days  of 
the  Stamp  Act. 

This  great  assembly  was  not  a  legislative  body;  it 
did  not  meet  to  make  laws,  it  was  merely  a  large  com- 
mittee selected  for  the  purpose  of  presenting  a  plan 
which  later  might  be  accepted  or  rejected  by  the  states. 
While  it  was  the  first  assembly  of  its  kind,  it  has  since 
had  hundred  of  counterparts  in  conventions  for  draw- 
ing up  state  constitutions,  city  charters,  and  sim- 
ilar organs  of  government.  Such  conventions  are 
merely  bodies  of  private  persons  with  no  legislative 
powers,  whose  work  may  be  summarily  rejected  by  the 
people  for  whom  it  has  been  so  carefully  made. 
Nevertheless  an  unofficial  council  of  this  sort  is  a  nec- 
essary first  step  in  planning  for  popular  government  in 
any  new  form. 

It  must  be  remembered  that  the  men  who  made  up 
the  Constitutional  Convention  were  not  the  plain  men 
of  the  people,  but  rather,  picked  men  of  the  young 
republic  —  the  representatives  of  the  great  county  fam- 
ilies of  Virginia,  the  tried  leaders  of  thought  in  Massa- 
chusetts and  the  other  colonies.  Graduates  of  Har- 
vard, of  Yale,  of  Princeton,  of  William  and  Mary,  of 
Oxford,  of  Glasgow,  and  of  Edinburgh,  were  in  the 
assembly.  Among  the  delegates  were  seven  governors 
of  states  and  twenty-eight  members,  or  former  members, 
of  Congress.  The  oldest  delegate  was  Benjamin  Frank- 
in,  then  eighty-one  years  old;  the  youngest,  Jonathan 
Dayton  of  New  Jersey,  a  "  stripling  "  of  twenty-six. 


MAKING  THE  CONSTITUTION  97 

In  later  years,  these  men  became  presidents,  vice-presi- 
dents, justices  of  the  supreme  court,  members  of  the 
president's  cabinet.  United  States  representatives,  and 
senators. 

The  official  minutes  of  the  proceedings  of  the  Con- 
vention were  kept  by  the  secretary,  but  by  far  the  best 
record  was  made  by  James  Madison  of  Virginia.  That 
not  a  word  might  escape  him,  this  devoted  patriot  took 
a  seat  in  the  middle  of  the  hall  and  every  day  for  nearly 
four  months,  he  wrote  down  in  self-made  shorthand,  a 
faithful  account  of  all  that  was  said;  every  night,  he 
undertook  the  tedious  task  of  transcribing  his  notes 
into  a  journal.  Madison  did  this,  as  his  Journal  states, 
that  there  might  be  an  "  exact  account  "  of  "  the  his- 
tory of  the  making  of  a  constitution  on  which  would 
be  staked  the  happiness  of  a  people  and  possibly  the 
cause  of  liberty  throughout  the  world."  This  Journal, 
one  of  the  precious  documentary  treasures  of  Amer- 
icans, was  found  among  Madison's  papers  and  made 
public  fifty  years  after  it  had  been  written,  when  all 
the  men  that  had  helped  to  frame  the  Constitution  had 
long  been  dead. 

THE    LEADERS^  IN    THE    CONVEN'TION 

Though  all  the  members  of  the  Convention  were 
earnest  patriots,  there  were  certain  of  them  who,  by 
the  power  of  their  presence  and  attitude  or  by  the 
logical  force  of  their  views,  stood  out  as  leaders. 
Washington  was  a  fitting  president.  He  was  no  de- 
bater, but,  guided  by  cautious  common  sense,  he  made 
an  excellent  presiding  officer.  Moreover,  his  magna- 
nimity and  patriotism,  his  serene  and  unchanging  bal- 
ance of  mind,  the  respect  and  honor  which  attached  to 
him,  were  the  very  qualities  needed  in  the  moderator  of 


98 


AMERICAN  DEMOCRACY 


such  a  convention.  He  spoke  seldom  during  the  pro- 
ceedings, but  we  may  be  sure  that  not  a  whisper  escaped 
him. 

As  has  been  noted,  Benjamin  Franklin  was  the  patri- 
arch of  the  Convention,  a  very  old  man,  weak  in  body, 
but  with  an  unimpaired  mind.     He  was  the  peace-maker. 


Courtesy  of  The  Macmillan  Co. 

Signing  of  the  Constitution 
From  Channing's  History  of  the  United  States 

His  genial  temper  and  ready  fund  of  appropriate 
stories  more  than  once  kept  the  assembly  from  going 
to  pieces  on  the  rocks  of  apparently  irreconcilable 
differences. 

One  of  the  great  figures  of  the  Convention  was  Alex- 
ander Hamilton  of  New  York.  Hamilton  was  at  the 
time  a  brilliant  young  man  of  thirty-three  years.  He 
had  been  a  soldier  in  the  Revolution,  a  member  of  Wash- 


MAKING  THE  CONSTITUTION  99 

ington's  staff,  and  was  already  a  leader  in  politics. 
In  the  Convention,  his  logical,  lucid  setting-forth  of  the 
alternatives  offered  in  any  given  case,  his  clear  enuncia- 
tion of  principles,  and  his  practical  suggestions,  af- 
forded the  greatest  help  in  the  formation  of  the  Con- 
stitution. 

James  Madison,  "  The  Father  of  the  Constitution," 
was  also  a  dominating  figure.  A  native  of  Virginia, 
he  was  a  Princeton  graduate  and  had  been  in  public 
life  for  a  number  of  years.  He  was  a  man  of  well- 
balanced  powers  —  sober,  sane,  sweet-tempered,  gen- 
erous, and  kind.  Yet,  when  convinced  on  a  matter,  he 
was  stubborn  and  won  his  point  by  force  of  intellect, 
industry,  and  downright  honesty.  In  manner,  he  was 
shy  and  prim,  blushing  like  a  girl  in  the  heat  of  argu- 
mentation. He  took  part  freely  in  the  discussions  and 
so  clearly  did  he  express  his  views  that  the  other  mem- 
bers "  were  enlightened  while  they  were  being  con- 
vinced." 

Gouverneur  Morris  of  Pennsylvania  was  another  of 
the  delegates.  Though  he  was  a  stout  abolitionist  and 
hater  of  slavery,  he  was  not  at  all  democratic.  He 
feared  the  "  leveling  "  tendency  of  government  by  the 
people  and  wished  to  check  the  "  precipitancy,  change- 
ableness,  and  excess  of  the  popular  spirit."  There 
were  also  present  Rufus  King  of  Massachusetts,  search- 
ing and  profound  in  explaining  political  principles; 
James  Wilson  of  Pennsylvania,  a  staunch  democrat  who 
had  signed  the  Declaration  of  Independence;  Charles 
Pinckney  of  South  Carolina;  and  Edmund  Randolph, 
the  "  president  "  of  Virginia. 

Besides  these  nine  men  who  exerted  the  greatest 
moulding  influence  on  the  Constitution,  there  were  a 
number    of   other   delegates   who   must   be   mentioned: 


100  AMERICAN  DEMOCRACY 

Roger  Sherman  of  Connecticut,  the  signer  of  three  of 
the  Great  American  Documents  —  the  Declaration  of 
Independence,  the  Articles  of  Confederation,  and  the 
Constitution;  Robert  Morris  of  Pennsylvania,  the 
financier  of  the  Revolutionary  War;  John  Dickinson 
of  Delaware ;  John  Rutledge  of  South  Carolina ;  and 
George  Mason  of  Virginia. 

Mason  of  Virginia,  Elbridge  Gerry  of  Massachusetts, 
and  the  venerable  Franklin  were  the  most  democratic 
men  of  the  Convention.  Most  of  the  others  leaned  to- 
ward aristocratic  ideals  in  government  and  wished  to 
establish  a  government  for  the  people,  administered  by 
the  wealth  and  intelligence  of  the  country.  Such  an 
attitude  was  natural  to  men  who  saw  the  need  of  a 
strong  power  to  bring  the  country  out  of  the  chaos  to- 
ward which  it  seemed  to  be  going.  They  feared  the 
excesses  of  the  uninstructed  mob.  The  period  of  reac- 
tion from  the  high  days  of  the  Declaration  had  set  in. 

Certain  marked  figures  were  absent  —  Jefferson  was 
in  France,  as  the  American  Ambassador  to  that  coun- 
try ;  John  Adams  held  a  like  position  in  England,  doing 
his  best  with  George  III,  who  naturally  was  not  over- 
cordial  ;  John  Jay  was  occupied  as  Secretary  of  For- 
eign Affairs.  There  were  others  absent  "  on  purpose  " 
or  without  excuse  —  among  them  Patrick  Henry  and 
Samuel  Adams,  who  refused  to  work  in  a  cause  with 
which  they  were  not  in  sympathy.  These  men  believed, 
as  did  many  others,  that  the  important  unit  of  govern- 
ment was  the  State.  They  feared  a  strong  central  gov- 
ernment. Richard  Henry  Lee  of  Virginia,  who,  be- 
sides the  Declaration  and  the  Articles,  had  signed  the 
State  Constitution  of  Virginia,  might  have  signed  the 
fourth  great  document  of  American  freedom,  but  missed 


MAKING  THE  CONSTITUTION:^      ^  101 

that  enviable  honor  because  he,  also,  disapproved  of 
the  Convention. 

Twelve  states  were  represented  in  the  Convention. 
Delaware,  which  came  late,  was  the  first  to  ratify  the 
Constitution  and  thus  redeem  herself.  Rhode  Island 
sent  no  delegate. 

The  deliberations  of  the  meeting  were  secret,  and  it 
was  well  they  were.  If  the  people  at  large  had  been 
informed  of  the  almost  daily  crises,  when  the  Conven- 
tion seemed  ready  to  fly  to  pieces,  if  they  had  realized 
how  far  apart  in  opinion  the  delegates  sometimes  were, 
it  is  doubtful  whether  outside  pressure  would  not  have 
caused  a  complete  disruption. 

THE    DIFFICULTIES    OF    THE    TASK 

The  delegates  from  the  very  first  faced  grave  diffi- 
culties. They  were  gathered  to  draw  up  an  instrument 
of  government  that  would  bind  together  the  people  of 
a  widely  scattered  country  composed  of  thirteen  states 
varying  in  climate,  occupation,  and  social  habits.  It 
needed  to  be  suitable  alike  for  people  whose  chief  in- 
terest was  trade;  for  those  who  were  predominantly 
agricultural ;  for  large  states  and  small ;  for  states  with 
many  slaves,  and  for  states  with  but  few  "  other  per- 
sons "  than  freemen.  In  other  words,  the  plan  must 
be  such  as  would  be  acceptable  to  a  various  people,  to 
the  fishermen  and  hill  farmers  of  New  Hampshire,  to  the 
merchants  and  ship-owners  of  Massachusetts  and  Con- 
necticut, and  to  the  landed  proprietors  of  Virginia  who 
knew  nothing  of  work  with  their  hands. 

Yet,  although  there  were  many  causes  of  discord, 
there  were  graver  reasons  for  union.  The  people  of 
the  states  and  their  representatives  at  the  Convention 


102  AMEHJCAN  DEMOCRACY 

knew  that  some  method  of  central  control  must  be 
found,  or  individually  the  states  were  in  danger  of 
perishing.  The  dread  of  foreign  powers  was  an  im- 
portant factor  which  helped  to  bring  together  the  vari- 
ous interests.  France  on  the  west,  England  on  the 
north,  and  Spain  on  the  south,  were  uncomfortably  near 
neighbors  and  the  colonists  were  not  anxious  for  a 
collision  with  any  one  of  them. 

There  were  other  conditions  in  favor  of  a  national 
life  for  the  states.  All  the  people  spoke  the  same  lan- 
guage ;  all  were  governed  by  the  same  English  com- 
mon law;  all  were  accustomed  to  the  management  of 
their  own  affairs  by  elective  legislatures ;  all  were  at- 
tached to  local  self-government;  and  all  had  a  common 
pride  in  their  triumph  over  England.  "  There  were, 
moreover,  no  reactionary  conspirators  to  be  feared,  for 
everyone  prized  liberty  and  equality.  There  were  no 
questions  between  classes,  no  animosities  against  rank 
and  wealth,  for  rank  and  wealth  did  not  exist."  ^ 

The  delegates  had  one  practical  advantage  much  in 
their  favor.  They  came  from  states  where  they  had 
had  a  hand  in  making  state  Constitutions  which  had 
by  this  time  been  in  operation  for  several  years,  and 
consequently  they  knew  the  elements  of  weakness  and  of 
strength  in  the  state  governments.  Added  to  this 
training,  was  their  previous  experience  in  the  Continen- 
tal Congress  and  under  the  unsatisfactory  "  Articles," 
which  kept  the  delegates  from  going  to  the  extremes  of 
experimentation. 

These  men  were,  moreover,  well  read  in  history,  phil- 
osophy,  and  the  law;   they  had   studied  with  interest 
the  development  of  the  English  Constitution ;  they  knew 
the  Petition  of  Right  as  well  as  Magna  Charta;  they 
1  Bryce. 


MAKING  THE  CONSTITUTION  103 

were  deeply  versed  in  English  jurisprudence;  and  they 
had,  best  of  all,  a  vision  of  the  future.     In  a  word,  th^ 
delegates  to  the  Constitutional  Convention  were  filled  \ 
with  the  purpose  of  forming  some  plan  that  would  put  j 
just    and   righteous   government   on   a   working  basis^. 
They  were,  therefore,  ready  to  contend  and  amend  and 
compromise  and  reconsider,  until  they  should  reach  a 
fairly  satisfactory  agreement. 

THE    TWO    PLANS 

It  was  evident  almost  from  the  first  that  the  orig- 
inal plan  of  the  convention  which  contemplated  amend- 
ing the  Articles  of  Confederation  was  impractical.  Be- 
fore long  the  delegates  deliberately  decided  to  exceed 
their  authority,  make  a  new  constitution,  and  leave  it 
to  the  states  to  justify  or  disapprove  their  action. 
Two  plans  were  discussed.  Randolph  of  Virginia 
brought  in  the  Virginia  Plan,  which  favored  the  large 
states  and  tended  to  a  strong  central  government. 
The  New  Jersey  plan,  on  the  other  hand,  was  favored 
by  the  small  states,  as  by  it  each  state,  regardless  of 
population,  would  have  equal  voting  power  in  national 
affairs.  This  plan  really  amounted  to  an  amendment 
to  the  Articles  of  Confederation. 

The  consideration  of  these  plans  threw  the  Conven- 
tion into  two  contending  camps.  Three  main  difficul- 
ties developed,  to  overcome  which  the  delegates  made 
in  the  course  of  their  deliberations  three  compromises. 
The  first  difficulty,  that  between  the  large  states  and 
the  small  states  on  the  question  of  representation,  was 
compromised  by  allowing  equal  representation  of  all  the 
states  in  the  Senate  and  representation  according  to 
population  in  the  House  of  Representatives.  .  The  sec- 
ond difficulty,  also  one  of  representation,  was  between 


104  AMERICAN  DEMOCRACY 

slave  states  and  free  states.  The  South  wanted  the 
slaves  to  be  counted  for  representation  but  not  for 
taxes.  This  was  compromised  by  allowing  the  South 
to  count  three-fifths  of  the  slaves  for  representation. 
The  third  difficulty  was  between  the  agricultural  states 
and  the  states  engaged  chiefly  in  trade.  The  states 
engaged  in  trade  wished  Congress  to  regulate  commerce 
while  the  agricultural  states  feared  central  control  and 
preferred  to  have  each  state  make  its  own  trade  laws. 
This  was  compromised  by  granting  to  Congress  the 
power  of  regulating  trade  by  a  majority  vote  and  by 
allowing  slave  trade  to  remain  open  until  1800.  These 
compromises  were  arrived  at  after  nearly  four  months 
of  patient  —  and  impatient  —  verbal   struggle. 

There  were  times  during  the  sitting  of  the  Convention 
when  it  seemed  that  nothing  could  make  the  delegates 
come  to  any  agreement.  Indeed,  certain  indignant 
members  "  bolted,"  and  went  home,  refusing  to  return. 
While  the  question  of  representation  by  states  or  by 
population  was  being  discussed,  the  Convention  nearly 
went  to  pieces.  Thereupon  Washington  gave  the  mem- 
bers a  strategic  recess  of  several  days  that  they  might 
have  time  to  calm  themselves.  In  the  end  the  cause  of 
union  was  saved  by  good-will  and  compromise  and  a 
new  specie^  of  government,  partly  federal,  partly  na- 
tional, was  proposed  to  the  states  for  their  approval. 

The  Constitution,  founded  as  it  was  on  compromises 
—  a  yielding  here  and  an  overlooking  of  principles 
there  —  held,  for  this  very  reason,  the  seeds  of  future 
strife.  The  members  did  not  modify  their  opinions  as  a 
result  of  taking  counsel;  they  were  not  converted  to 
each  other's  opinions ;  they  remained  unconvinced  and 
yielded  merely  in  order  to  get  some  sort  of  practical 
result. 


MAKING  THE  CONSTITUTION  105 


THE    THREE    COMPROMISES 

Nevertheless  it  was  the  three  great  compromises  that 
laid  the  foundations  of  our  Federal  Constitution.  The 
first  compromise,  by  allowing  equal  representation  to 
the  states  in  the  Senate,  won  the  small  states  to  the 
new  scheme,  and  by  making  population  the  basis  of 
representation  in  the  lower  house,  prepared  the  way 
for  a  strong  and  permanent  government.  This  first 
compromise  was  Madison's  great  victory,  without  which 
nothing  could  have  been  effected.  The  second  com- 
promise which  allowed  three-fifths  of  the  slaves  to  be 
represented  won  over  the  slave  states.  The  third  com- 
promise, while  allowing  foreign  slave  trade  to  go  on 
for  twenty  years  longer,  secured  free-trade  between 
states,  and  gave  control  of  foreign  trade  to  the  federal 
government.  This  part  of  the  road  having  been  cov- 
ered in  safety,  the  rest  of  the  journey  was  completed 
without  danger  of  a  complete  breakdown. 

The  Constitution  had  two  vital  defects.  One  of  these 
was  a  question  of  principle  —  the  recognition  of  slav- 
ery. The  other  was  a  question  of  definition  —  the  lack 
of  a  clear  limitation  of  "  States  Rights,"  which  should 
specifically  deny  the  right  of  a  state  to  withdraw  from 
the  Union.  The  delegates  showed  a  guilty  reluctance 
to  use  the  word  "  slave."  For  seventy-seven  years 
slavery  existed  without  being  mentioned  in  the  organic 
law  of  the  country,  the  word  appearing  in  the  Consti- 
tution for  the  first  time  in  the  Thirteenth  Amendment. 
As  for  the  question  of  States  Rights,  there  is  no  doubt 
that,  at  the  time  of  the  adoption  of  the  Constitution,  it 
was  generally  understood  that  any  state  could  with- 
draw from  the  Union  if  it  so  desired.  It  took  the  War 
of  Secession  to  settle  both  these  questions. 


106  AMERICAN  DEMOCRACY 

But  it  must  not  be  forgotten  that,  after  all,  these 
two  defects  made  possible  a  United  States  of  America. 
If  slavery  had  been  cast  out  by  the  men  at  Philadelphia 
in  1789,  no  Constitution  for  a  union  of  states  could 
have  been  made.  If  there  had  been  a  clear  statement 
to  the  eff'ect  that  the  central  government  was  superior 
to  the  state  government,  or  that  the  state  government 
was  superior  to  the  central  government,  the  votes  of  the 
members  would  probably  have  been  about  equally 
divided.  Imperfect  though  the  original  instrument  was, 
it  has  served  to  hold  together  our  United  States. 

THE    COMPLETED    CONSTITUTION 

The  work  of  the  Convention  was,  as  Hamilton  him- 
self said,  a  compound  of  errors  and  prejudices  as  well 
as  of  good  sense  and  wisdom.  It  was  largely  worked 
out  from  the  actual  experience  of  the  framers,  although 
some  of  its  provisions  had  never  been  tried  in  prac- 
tice. Thus  the  body  that  madie  the  laws,  was  to  have 
nothing  to  say  concerning  the  constitutionality  of  the 
laws ;  and  the  executive  branch  which  carried  out  the 
laws  was  to  have  nothing  directly  to  do  with  the  mak- 
ing and  judging  of  the  laws;  nor  was  the  judicial 
branch  to  be  concerned  in  any  way  with  the  making  or 
execution  of  the  laws.  Yet  the  President,  as  chief 
executive,  was  given  the  veto  power  on  all  laws  passed 
by  Congress;  he  was  also  allowed  to  appoint  the  judges 
of  the  Supreme  Court,  who  hold  their  offices  for  life 
and  sit  in  judgment  on  all  the  work  of  the  law-making 
body;  the  legislative  branch,  through  the  Senate,  was 
empowered  to  assist  the  President  in  foreign  affairs  such 
as  treaties,  the  appointment  of  ambassadors,  and  like 
matters;  while  the  Senate  w^as  declared  the  judging 
body  in  case  of  the  impeachment  of  the  President. 


MAKING  THE  CONSTITUTION  107 

Whether  the  Senate,  which  until  recently  has  not  been 
controlled  directly  by  the  votes  of  the  people,  is  a  help 
or  a  hindrance  to  effective  government  has  often  been 
questioned.  The  men  who  made  the  Constitution  con- 
sidered it  a  helpful  restraint  on  the  House  of  Repre- 
sentatives. And  again,  whether  this  whole  system  of 
checks  and  balances  always  tends  toward  a  better  car- 
rying out  of  the  "  sense  "  of  the  country,  or  whether 
the  complete  separation  of  powers  is  always  desir- 
able for  the  common  welfare,  are  matters  that  have 
by  no  means  been  settled  to  everyone's  satisfaction. 
The  whole  system  was  devised  as  a  means  of  check- 
ing hasty  and  unwise  legislation.  If  carried  to  its 
logical  conclusion,  this  system  might  produce  noth- 
ing more  than  a  deadlock,  which  is  at  best  a  state 
hardly  calculated  to  make  the  transaction  of  business 
easy. 

The  office  of  chief  executive  having  had  no  counter- 
part in  colonial  assemblies,  the  members  of  the  Con- 
stitutional Convention  were  at  sea  when  it  came  to  that 
matter.  A  triple  executive,  a  sort  of  elective  trium- 
virate consisting  of  three  men,  was  suggested,  but  no 
action  was  taken  on  the  suggestion.  Roger  Sherman 
proposed  that  an  executive  committee  be  elected  from 
the  House  of  Representatives,  an  arrangement  that 
would  have  resulted  in  a  system  similar  to  the  English 
Cabinet  system.  The  proposal  fell  on  deaf  ears,  as  no 
one  present  realized  that  such  a  system  might  result 
in  a  more  democratic  form  of  government  than  one 
which  had  at  its  head  a  single  executive  elected  outside 
of  Congress.  Many  of  the  framers  dreaded  a  king; 
others  shuddered  at  the  thought  of  a  republican  Crom- 
well. They  all  desired  a  dignified  executive,  with  lim- 
ited power.     Finally,  they  decided  on  a  "  President," 


108  AMERICAN  DEMOCRACY 

selecting  the  title  because  it  contained  no  reminder  of 
the  hated  royal  governors. 

As  the  makers  of  the  Constitution  had  had  but  little 
experience  with  the  office  of  chief  executive,  they  had 
a  very  amicable  time  discussing  the  matter.  The 
method  of  electing  the  President  that  was  decided  upon 
was  an  entirely  new  device,  hitherto  untried  by  any 
government.  It  was  never  intended  that  the  people 
should  elect  the  President  directly,  as  it  was  thought 
that  a  select  group  of  men  could  better  judge  the  fit- 
ness and  merits  of  candidates  for  the  high  office  than 
could  the  mass  of  uninformed  voters.  He  was  to  be 
chosen  by  "  electors "  who  should  get  together  and 
actually  name  the  chief  executive  as  a  result  of  their 
own  deliberations.  The  Constitution  made  no  provi- 
sion for  party  conventions  which  at  the  present  time 
select  the  candidates  for  President. 

After  the  members  of  the  Convention  had  finally 
agreed  upon  the  provisions  of  the  Constitution,  it  was 
turned  over  to  a  Committee  on  Style  of  which  Gouver- 
neur  Morris  was  Chairman.  To  him  is  due  the  pre- 
cise and  fitting  wording  of  the  Constitution,  as  it  is 
recorded  that  he  revised  and  "  draughted  the  document 
with  his  own  hand."  When  the  Constitution  was  com- 
pleted, the  members  that  had  stayed  to  the  end,  drew 
together  and  swore  to  defend  the  work  of  the  Conven- 
tion. Not  one  of  them  was  completely  satisfied  with  the 
result  of  their  labors  yet  the  thirty-nine  who  signed  it 
stood  by  its  ratification.  Three  refused  to  sign  — 
Randolph  and  Mason  of  Virginia  and  Gerry  of  Massa- 
chusetts.    The  signatures  represented  twelve  states. 

The  work  of  the  Convention  finished,  the  framers,  re- 
lieved that  something  had  been  accomplished,  yet  doubt- 
less   fearful    of   how    their    work    would   be    received, 


MAKING  THE  CONSTITUTION  109 

smoothed  down  their  laces,  settled  their  wigs,  put  on 
their  three-cornered  hats,  and,  collecting  their  belong- 
ings, prepared  to  depart  from  Independence  Hall. 
Their  carefully  constructed  plan  was  still  to  be  sub- 
mitted to  the  suspicious  and  not  altogether  open- 
minded  people  of  thirteen  states. 

So  it  was  that  the  Constitutional  Convention  sent 
forth,  not  the  amended  Articles  of  Confederation  to 
be  ratified  by  all  of  the  thirteen  states,  but  an  entirely 
new  scheme  of  government.  The  members  of  the  Con- 
vention behind  closed  doors  had  set  afoot  a  very  real 
revolution  which  awaited  the  approval  of  at  least  nine 
of  the  thirteen  states  to  make  it  fundamental  law. 

RATIFICATION    OF    THE    CONSTITUTION 

The  labor  of  the  framers  did  not  cease  with  the 
close  of  the  Convention;  the  duty  of  securing  ratifica- 
tion by  the  nine  necessary  states  devolved  upon  them. 
This  was  not  an  easy  thing  to  do  for  many  true  patriots 
were  against  the  Constitution,  some  because  the  Conven- 
tion had  exceeded  its  authority,  others  because  of  the 
fear  of  kings.  Madison  and  Hamilton  defended  the 
work  of  the  Convention  in  a  masterly  set  of  essays 
which,  collected  as  "  The  Federalist  "  papers,  are  re- 
garded as  among  the  highest  authorities  on  constitu- 
tional law.  A  flood  of  pro  and  con  pamphlets  deluged 
the  land  —  "  Cato,"  "  Agricola,"  "  Rex,"  and  "  Veri- 
tas "  became  vociferous  and  even  abusive.  Poor  unof- 
fending James  Wilson  was  burned  in  effigy,  Madison 
and  Hamilton  were  stigmatized  as  mere  "  boys,"  even 
Washington  was  called  a  "  born  fool,"  and  Franklin 
"  an  old  dotard."  "  We  the  people  "  instead  of  "  We 
the  states  "  lost  the  support  of  such  men  as  Patrick 
Henry  and  Richard  Henry  Lee  who  fought  hard  against 


110 


AMERICAN  DExMOCRACY 


ratification.  Samuel  Adams  was  brought  over  only  by 
the  expression  of  approval  from  the  mechanics  of  Bos- 
ton, a  hesitancy  on  his  part  that  later  cost  him  the 
position  of  Vice-President.  Jefferson,  still  abroad, 
was  consulted  by  letter.  He  advised  that  a  Bill  of 
Rights  securing  personal  freedom  and  protection  of 
human  rights  be  appended  before  the  Constitution  was 


ARTICLE  VII. 

1.  The  ratification  of  the  conventions  of  nine  states  shall  be  suffi- 
cient for  the  establishment  of  this  constitution  between  the  states 
so  ratifying  the  same. 

Done  in  convention  by  the  unanimous  consent  of  the  states  present, 
the  seventeenth  day  of  September,  in  the  year  of  our  Lord  one 
thousand  seven  hundred  and  eighty-seven,  and  of  the  inde- 
pendence of  the  United  States  of  America  the  twel/th.  In 
witness  whereof,  we  have  hereunto  subscribed  our  names. 

GEO.  WASHINGTON, 
Presidt.  and  deputy  from  Viryima. 


XEW    HAMPSHIRE. 

John  Langdon, 
Nicholas  Gilman. 

MASSACHUSETTS. 

Nathaniel  Gorham, 
Rufus  King. 

COXNECTICUT. 

Wm.  Saml.  Johnson, 
Roger  Sherman. 

NEW   YORK. 

Alexander  Hamilton. 

XEW   JERSEY. 

Wil.  Livingston, 
David  Brearley, 
Wm.  Paterson, 
Jona.  Dayton. 


PEXNSYLVAXIA. 

B.  Franklin, 
Thomas  Mifflin, 
Robt.  Morris, 
Geo:  Clymer, 
Tho:  Fltzsimons, 
Jared  Ingersoll, 
James  Wilson, 
Gouv:  Morris. 

DELAWARE. 

Geo:  Read, 
Gunning   Bedford, 

Jun'r, 
John  Dickinson, 
Richard  Bassett, 
Jaco:  Broom. 

MARYLAXD. 

James  M'Henrv, 
Dan:  of  St.  Thos. 

Jenifer, 
Danl:  Carroll. 


VIRCIXIA. 

John  Blair, 

James  Madison,  Jr. 

XORTH    CAROLIXA. 

Wm.  Blount, 
Rich'd    Dobbs 

Spaight, 
Hu.  Williamson. 

SOUTH    CAROLIXA. 

J.  Rutledge, 
Charles  Cotesworth 

Pinckney, 
Charles  Pinckney, 
Pierce  Butler. 


GEORGIA. 

William  Few, 
Abr.  Baldwin. 


Attest: 


WILLIAM  JACKSON,  Secretary. 


MAKING  THE  CONSTITUTION  111 

ratified.     Presently   many   states   came  in   stipulating 
that  this  be  done. 

One  by  one  the  states  signified  their  acceptance  of 
the  Constitution  —  Delaware  the  first  and  New  Hamp- 
shire the  last  of  the  nine.  Hamilton  swung  the  New 
York  convention  into  line  by  the  power  of  his  eloquence 
and  logic  amid  the  acclaim  of  the  tallow-chandlers  and 
the  pump-and-block  makers  who  marched  the  streets 
in  honor  of  the  "  New  Roof."  At  last,  in  1789,  with 
George  Washington  as  President,  the  national  govern- 
ment of  the  United  States  of  America  began  to  operate 
with  the  Constitution  as  the  fundamental  law. 


CHAPTER  VI 
THE  GOVERNMENT  OF  THE 
UNITED  STATES 

A  majority,  held  in  restraint  by  constitutional  checks  and  limi- 
tations, and  easily  changing  with  deliberate  changes  of  popular 
opinion,  is  the  only  true  sovereign  of  the  people. 

The  legitimate  object  of  Government  is  to  do  for  a  community 
of  people  whatever  they  need  to  have  done  but  cannot  do  them- 
selves in  their  separate  individual  capacities.  In  all  that  the 
people  can  individually  do  as  well  for  themselves,  government  need 
not  interfere. 

Abraham  Lincoln. 

A  study  of  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States  may 
well  occupy  a  lifetime;  for  though  the  provisions  of 
the  great  document  seem  fairly  plain  at  first  glance, 
their  working-out  in  actual  practice  make  up  a  compli- 
cated system  that  might  often  puzzle  the  boldest  in- 
vestigator. But  plain  Americans  must  at  some  time 
make  a  beginning  of  the  study,  if  this  government  is 
to  continue  a  government  of  the  people.  By  all  signs 
the  present  would  seem  to  be  none  too  soon. 

NECESSARY    DEFINITIONS 

In  order  to  compare  our  government  with  other 
"  popular  "  governments  the  following  primary  defini- 
tions must  be  formulated: 

A  pure  democracy  is  one  in  which  every  person  in  the 

unit  of  government  takes  part  directly  in  the  making  of 

112 


114  AMERICAN  DEMOCRACY 

the  laws.  No  such  political  state  is  in  existence  to-day, 
as  it  would  not  be  practical  on  a  large  scale.  An  or- 
dinary school  debating  society  is  an  example  of  pure 
democracy. 

A  republic  is  .a  form  of  government  in  which  the 
people  rule  by  means  of  representatives  that .  they 
elect. 

A  centralized  republic  is  one  whose  governing  powers 
are  all  in  one  body.  There  may  be  divisions  or  prov- 
inces made  by  the  central  government  for  convenience 
in  administration,  but  all  legislation  is  enacted  by  the 
central  government.     France  is  a  centralized  republic. 

A  confederate  republic  is  a  mere  league  of  sovereign 
states  which  deals  and  acts  with  states,  not  with  indi- 
viduals. The  individual  is  taxed,  judged,  and  bound 
by  the  laws  of  the  state  only.  It  is  a  sort  of  feudal 
system  of  government  on  a  large  scale.  The  South 
during  the  War  of  Secession  —  from  1861  to  1865  — 
was  a  confederate  republic,  as  its  name,  "  The  Confed- 
erate States  of  America,"  indicated. 

A  federal  republic,  such  as  is  the  United  States  of 
America,  lies  between  the  centralized  republic  and  con- 
federate republic ;  it  is  a  union  of  states,  but  it  is  also  a 
nation  made  by  the  union  of  states.  The  individual 
owes  allegiance  to  the  nation  and  is  governed  by  its 
law^s.  But  the  states  are  inviolable;  that  is,  they  have 
powers,  rights,  and  authority  of  their  own,  which  ex- 
ist apart  from  the  federal  government  and  which  the 
federal  government  cannot  take  away.  No  state,  how- 
ever, can  pass  laws  contrary  to  the  Constitution  of  the 
United  States.  The  two  facts  that  the  state  is  a  sov- 
ereign unit  within  a  sovereign  unit  and  that  ours  is  a 
representative  democracy,  must  always  be  kept  in  mind 
in  any  study  of  our  Government. 


THE  AMERICAN  GOVERNMENT  115 


PROVISIONS    OF    THE    CONSTITUTION 

The  very  best  rehearsal  of  the  provisions  of  the  or- 
ganic law  of  the  United  States  is  to  be  found  in  the 
document  itself.  The  Constitution  begins  with  the  of- 
ten repeated  Preamble :  "  We,  the  People  of  the 
United  States,  in  order  to  form  a  more  perfect  Union, 
establish  Justice,  insure  domestic  Tranquility,  provide 
for  the  common  Defense,  promote  the  general  Welfare, 
and  secure  the  Blessings  of  Liberty  to  Ourselves  and 
our  Posterity,  do  ordain  and  establish  this  CONSTI- 
TUTION for  the  United  States  of  America." 

Article  I  of  the  Constitution  deals  with  the  legisla- 
tive branch,  the  Congress.  In  this  article  the  powers 
of  Congress  to  make  laws  are  distinctly  enumerated  and 
other  powers  are  distinctly  denied.  The  powers  and 
restrictions  of  the  states  are  also  plainly  set  forth. 
The  "  immemorial  "  right  of  the  popular  assembly  to 
originate  bills  for  the  raising  of  money  is  confined  to 
the  House  of  Representatives ;  the  power  of  declaring 
war  and  of  raising  and  supporting  an  army  and  navy 
is  delegated  to  the  Congress  as  a  whole,  not  to  the  Presi- 
dent ;  the  power  of  impeachment  is  vested  in  the  Senate. 
This  power  of  impeachment,  which  in  practice  can  sel- 
dom be  resorted  to,  is  the  only  provision  made  in  the 
Constitution  to  insure  responsible  officers. 

At  the  end  of  Section  VIII,  Article  I,  after  the 
enumeration  of  the  specific  powers  of  Congress,  occurs 
the  renowned  "  elastic  "  clause  which  has  been  stretched 
and  contracted  to  suit  the  particular  needs  of  particular 
policies  many  a  time.  It  is  as  follows :  "  Congress 
shall  have  power  to  make  all  laws  which  shall  be  neces- 
sary and  proper  for  carrying  into  Execution  the  fore- 
going Powers,  and  all  other  Powers  vested  by  this  Con- 


116  AMERICAN  DEMOCRACY 

stitution  in  the  Government  of  the  United  States,  or  in 
any  department  or  officer  thereof." 

Article  II  deals  with  the  executive  branch,  the  Presi- 
dent. Of  him  alone  was  it  stipulated  that  he  should 
be  a  native  of  the  United  States  or  a  citizen  at  the  time 
of  the  adoption  of  the  Constitution.  This  last  was 
written  with  Hamilton,  James  Wilson,  and  Robert 
Morris  —  all  foreign-born  —  in  mind.  The  exact 
words  of  the  oath  of  office  in  which  the  President 
solemnly  swears  to  protect  and  defend  the  Constitution 
of  the  United  States  are  given  in  this  article  as  are 
the  "  powers  "  and  "  duties  "  of  the  chief  executive. 

Article  III  deals  with  the  judicial  branch,  the  Su- 
preme Court  of  the  United  States  and  such  inferior 
courts  as  Congress  may  from  time  to  time  ordain  and 
establish  according  to  the  Constitution.  The  Supreme 
Court  of  the  United  States  consists  of  the  Chief  Justice 
and  nine  associate  justices  —  whose  duty  it  is  to  define 
the  meaning  of  the  federal  laws  by  rendering  decisions 
in  cases  which  arise  under  the  Constitution.  It  has 
original  jurisdiction  —  that  is,  the  proceedings  are 
taken  up  directly  in  the  Supreme  Court  —  in  all  cases 
aflfecting  ambassadors,  consuls,  and  other  public  min- 
ister, and  in  those  in  which  a  state  shall  be  a  party. 
It  has  appellate  jurisdiction  —  that  is,  in  cases  of  an 
appeal  from  a  decision  of  lower  courts  —  in  many  spe- 
cific cases. 

In  Section  III  of  this  Article  occurs  the  following 
definition :  "  Treason  against  the  United  States  shall 
consist  only  in  levying  war  against  them,  or  in  adher- 
ing to  their  enemies,  giving  them  aid  and  comfort.  No 
person  shall  be  convicted  of  treason  unless  on  the  tes- 
timony of  two  witnesses  to  the  same  overt  act,  or  on 
open  confession  in  court." 


THE  AMERICAN  GOVERNMENT  117 

Article  IV  deals  with  the  relations  of  a  state  to  the 
other  states  and  to  the  United  States,  provides  for  the 
government  of  territories,  and  guarantees  a  republican 
form  of  government  to  the  separate  states. 

Article  V,  which  concerns  amendments,  states  that 
the  proposal  for  an  amendment  must  come  from  two- 
thirds  of  the  members  of  both  houses  of  Congress,  or  on 
application  of  the  legislatures  of  two-thirds  of  the 
states  for  a  convention  to  propose  an  amendment.  It 
further  provides  that  the  proposed  amendment  shall 
become  a  part  of  the  Constitution  when  it  has  been  rati- 
.fied  by  three-fourths  of  the  states. 

Article  VI  sets  up  the  Constitution  as  the  supreme 
law  of  the  land  and  prescribes  that  all  governmental 
officials  shall  be  bound  by  oath  to  support  its  provisions. 

Article  VII  provides  that  ratification  of  the  Consti- 
tution by  nine  states  shall  be  sufficient  to  establish  the 
Constitution  as  the  law  of  the  states  ratifying  it. 

Since  the  adoption  of  the  Constitution  that  vener- 
able document  of  liberty  has  been  amended  nineteen 
times  the  two  latest  being  the  "  dry  "  amendment  and 
the  woman  suffrage  amendment. 

AMENDMENTS    TO    THE    CONSTITUTION 

The  first  ten  amendments,  adopted  in  1791,  contain 
what  is  in  reality  the  Bill  of  Rights  which  the  states, 
under  Jefferson's  advice,  insisted  on  having  added  to 
the  Constitution.  They  provide  that  Congress  shall 
make  no  laws  denying  freedom  of  speech,  or  of  the 
press,  religious  freedom,  freedom  to  assemble,  and  free- 
dom to  petition.  They  guarantee  freedom  from  arbi- 
trary arrest  and  imprisonment,  and  a  speedy  trial  on 
specific  charges.  They  also  specifically  forbid  exces- 
sive bails  and  fines,  and  the  quartering  of  soldiers  in 


118  AMERICAN  DEMOCRACY 

private  houses  in  times  of  peace.  In  a  word,  they  sum- 
marize, up  to  that  date,  the  results  of  the  struggle  for 
human  liberty. 

The  eleventh  amendment,  adopted  in  1798,  established 
the  sovereignty  of  a  state  in  judicial  affairs  relating 
to  itself. 

The  twelfth  amendment,  passed  in  1804,  changed  the 
method  of  presidential  elections,  to  make  it  possible  to 
have  the  President  and  Vice-President  of  the  same  polit- 
ical party.  Before  the  passage  of  this  amendment,  the 
candidate  who  received  the  greatest  number  of  electoral 
votes  became  President.  The  one  receiving  next  high-, 
est  became  Vice-President.  Thus,  when  John  Adams, 
a  Federalist,  was  President,  Thomas  Jefferson,  an  Anti- 
Federalist,  was  Vice-President. 

The  memorable  thirteenth  amendment,  passed  in 
1865,  prohibited  slavery  in  the  United  States. 

The  fourteenth  and  fifteenth  amendments,  passed  in 
1868  and  1870  respectively,  placed  negroes  on  the  same 
basis  of  citizenship  as  white  persons. 

The  sixteenth  amendment,  passed  in  1913,  allow^ed 
Congress  to  levy  an  income  tax. 

The  seventeenth  amendment,  passed  in  1913,  pro- 
vided for  popular  election  of  Senators. 

The  eighteenth  amendment,  passed  in  1919,  for- 
bade the  manufacture  and  sale  of  alcoholic  liquors  in 
any  part  of  the  United  States  after  January  16, 
1920. 

The  nineteenth  amendment,  which  was  written  by 
Susan  B.  Anthony  shortly  after  the  War  of  Secession, 
reads  as  follows :  "  The  right  of  citizens  of  the  United 
States  to  vote  shall  not  be  denied  or  abridged  by  the 
United  States  or  by  any  State  on  account  of  sex." 
This  amendment  was  proclaimed  law  August  26,  1920, 


THE  AMERICAN  GOVERNMENT  119 

after  nearly  seventy  years  of  effort  on  the  part  of  its 
advocates. 

The  Constitution  of  the  United  States,  with  the  ex- 
ception of  the  nineteen  amendments  that  have  been  re- 
hearsed, stands  exactly  as  it  was  adopted.  After  it 
became  the  fundamental  law,  it  was  whole-heartedly 
accepted  and  for  over  one  hundred  years  scarcely 
questioned.  Never  did  a  people  with  such  good-hu- 
mored unanimity  accept  the  decision  on  so  fundamental 
a  question  and  settle  down  so  cheerfully  to  live  and  die 
under  its  provisions. 

CHANGES    BY    INTERPRETATION 

But  the  operation  of  the  government  according  to 
the  provisions  of  the  Constitution  never  has  been  easy 
to  carry  out,  for  the  Constitution  in  operation  has 
proved  a  very  different  thing  from  the  Constitution 
of  the  books.  Even  a  slight  study  of  our  history  and 
institutions  will  show  that  the  government  has  not 
worked  out  exactly  by  the  rules  laid  down.  It  has  been 
necessary  to  change  the  Constitution  not  only  by  for- 
mal amendment,  but  also  by  interpretation,  by  usage 
and  custom,  and  by  devices  new  to  government. 

In  consequence  of  the  continually  increasing  activi- 
ties of  modern  life,  it  is  not  at  all  strange  that  it  has 
been  necessary  to  make  great  changes  in  the  fundamen- 
tal law  upon  which  the  government  of  this  great  coun- 
try is  carried  on.  To  have  this  fact  brought  home, 
one  has  but  to  think  of  the  increase  in  wealth,  in  busi- 
ness, and  in  commerce;  the  virtual  revolutions  in  meth- 
ods of  manufacture,  the  introduction  of  the  railwa}^ 
the  telegraph,  the  telephone ;  and  all  the  other  bewilder- 
ing innovations  that  have  crowded  the  century  and  a 
third  since  the  adoption  of  the  Constitution.     While  in 


120  AMERICAN  DEMOCRACY 

1787,  it  took  six  perilous  days  to  go  from  Boston  to 
New  York,  it  now  takes  scarcely  so  long  a  time,  with 
infinitely  less  discomfort,  to  make  a  trip  from  Port- 
land, Maine,  to  Los  Angeles,  California. 

Except  for  the  awful  War  of  Secession,  the  modifica- 
tions in  the  Constitution  have  been  made  peaceably, 
sometimes  by  practices  initiated  by  officers  of  govern- 
ment, sometimes  after  slow  years  spent  in  educating 
the  popular  will;  they  have  come  sometimes  by  inter- 
pretation, sometimes  by  the  unquestioned  decisions  of 
the  Supreme  Court;  sometimes  they  have  been  wrought 
out  in  heated  political  strife;  only  once  in  a  deluge  of 
blood. 

The  position  of  the  Supreme  Court  has  caused  it  to 
have  a  very  vital  influence  in  settling  the  meanings  of 
the  Constitution.  As  every  law  enacted  by  Congress 
must  be  in  harmony  with  the  principles  laid  down  in 
the  Constitution,  it  is  the  duty  of  the  Supreme  Court 
to  pass  upon  the  constitutionality  of  the  laws.  If  the 
Court  finds  a  law  to  be  out  of  harmony  with  the  funda- 
mental law,  it  is  declared  null  and  void.  Nothing  but 
a  change  in  the  Constitution  or  a  new  interpretation 
by  the  Supreme  Court  can  then  remove  the  barrier  of 
illegality.  The  decisions  and  interpretations  of  the 
Supreme  Court  during  the  first  half  century  of  the  new 
republic  had  a  powerful  influence  on  the  actual  work- 
ing out  of  the  government. 

It  is  not  the  Supreme  Court  alone  that  has  been  ac- 
tive in  interpreting  the  Constitution, —  statesmen  and 
political  parties  have  had  a  hand  in  the  business.  Al- 
most as  soon  as  the  Constitution  was  put  into  operation, 
questions  arose  concerning  the  legal  right  of  Congress 
to  make  laws  for  purposes  not  expressly  mentioned  in 
the  Constitution.     It  was  claimed  that  there  were  other 


THE  AMERICAN  GOVERNxMENT  121 

powers  "  implied  "  in  the  Constitution ;  both  in  the  pre- 
amble, which  defined  as  one  of  the  purposes  of  the  Con- 
stitution "  to  provide  for  the  general  welfare,"  and  in 
the  "  elastic "  clause,  which  empowered  Congress  to 
make  all  laws  which  shall  be  necessary  and  proper  "  for 
carrying  out  the  provisions  of  the  Constitution."  Thus 
at  once  political  leaders  and  their  parties  became 
"  loose  "  or  "  strict  "  constructionists,  as  it  suited  their 
purposes.  In  the  later  history  of  our  government,  these 
clauses  have  been  stretched  to  allow  the  regulation  of 
interstate  commerce  by  establishing  railroad  rates  and 
by  the  enactment  of  the  Pure  Food  Law  which  forbids 
the  adulteration  of  foods.  Though  the  elastic  clause 
supplies  a  dangerous  method  of  virtually  amending  the 
Constitution,  it  has  been  used  in  all  cases  for  the  "  com- 
mon good  "  of  all  the  people  in  the  United  States. 

CHANGES    BY    PRACTICE 

Not  only  have  the  provisions  of  the  Constitution  been 
variously  construed,  but  practices  unauthorized  by  the 
Constitution  have  become  part  and  parcel  of  the  prac- 
tical law  of  the  land.  One  of  these  practices  has  to  do 
with  the  President's  Cabinet,  whose  members  assist  him 
in  carrying  on  the  government.  There  is  no  provision 
in  the  Constitution  for  a  President's  council,  but  from 
Washington's  time  the  President's  Cabinet  has  been  a 
feature  of  the  Federal  Government.  At  first,  members 
once  appointed  continued  to  keep  their  portfolios  even 
when  a  new  President  was  elected.  But  when  Adams 
became  President,  the  position  of  Secretary  of  State 
was  held  by  Pickering,  a  warm  admirer  of  Hamilton, 
Adams'  enemy.  Before  the  end  of  that  administration, 
every  one  saw  that  each  President  must  appoint  his 
own  Cabinet  if  there  was  to  be  harmony  in  the  official 
family  of  the  Chief  Executive. 


122  AMERICAN  DEMOCRACY 

This  thoroughly  justified  change  of  practice  was  the 
real  beginning  of  the  corrupting  "  Spoils  System."  At 
first,  revenue  officers  —  postmasters,  marshals,  and 
other  officials  —  retained  their  places  during  good  be- 
havior. But  soon,  because  of  the  President's  power 
of  appointment,  changes  began  to  be  made  with  each 
administration,  while  the  number  of  new  appointments 


Photograph  from  Underwood  &  Underwood 

A  Recent  National  Convention  for  Selection  of  Party 
Candidates 

was  gradually  increased.  Finally  Andrew  Jackson, 
who  acted  on  the  motto,  "  to  the  victors  belong  the 
spoils,"  began  the  practice  of  the  wholesale  clearing 
out  of  offices  for  new  incumbents  at  every  change  in 
Presidential  politics.  Nearly  200,000  men  —  a  vast 
host  of  office-holders  —  are  now  appointed  by  the  Pres- 
ident. This  "  power  of  appointment "  is  the  Presi- 
dent's chief  source  of  political  influence;  it  makes 
him  truly  an  elected  king  with  a  limited  reign.     Civil 


THE  AMERICAN  GOVERNxMENT  123 

service  reform  had  done  much  to  clear  out  the  spoils 
system,  though  the  practice  of  rewarding  political 
henchmen  with  "  political  jobs  "  is  yet  far  from  being 
out  of  fashion. 

Though  the  electoral  college  was  designed  actually 
to  elect  the  President,  Washington  had  hardly  been 
seated  when  the  country  began  to  fall  into  political  par- 
ties —  the  Federalists  and  the  Democrat-Republicans. 

By  1800,  party  members  of  Congress  met  in  caucus 
to  name  presidential  candidates.  This  continued  until 
about  1830  when  popular  revolt  against  this  narrow 
control  led  to  the  holding  of  National  Party  Conven- 
tions to  select  party  candidates  for  national  offices. 
Thus,  almost  from  the  first,  the  Electoral  College  has 
been  a  merely  formal  institution. 

The  framers  of  the  Constitution  showed  a  decided 
aversion  to  paper  money  in  any  form,  a  clause  pro- 
hibiting such  an  issuance  being  left  out  only  because  it 
was  thought  to  be  entirely  superfluous.  Yet  in  1862, 
the  United  States  issued  paper  money  as  legal  tender, 
an  act  which,  if  the  spirit  of  the  framers  of  the  Con- 
stitution was  considered  as  binding,  was  certainly  un- 
constitutional. 

THE  STATES  AND  THE  FEDERAL  GOVERNMENT 

The  greatest  problem  of  the  men  who  made  the  Con- 
stitution was  to  adjust  the  relations  between  the  states 
and  the  central  government  so  that  each  might  have 
power  to  do  its  proper  work  without  hindrance  from 
the  other.  This  was  accomplished  by  establishing 
what  amounted  to  two  governments  of  the  people  in  each 
state,  "  each  in  its  own  sphere,  each  supporting  the 
other,  and  neither  interfering  with  the  other's  affairs." 
Thus,  a  citizen  of  the  United  States  owes  double  alle- 
giance —  to  his  country  and  to  his  state.     The  War 


124  AMERICAN  DEMOCRACY 

of  Secession  settled  and  forever  silenced  the  question  of 
whether  or  not  the  Federal  Government  has  the  power 
to  compel  the  people  of  the  states  to  obey  the  laws 
which  they,  the  people  of  the  United  States,  themselves 
make. 

To  the  American  of  the  present  time,  the  fact  of 
state  and  national  allegiance  is  scarcely  realized.  Yet, 
though  the  citizen  ordinarily  does  not  realize  it,  the 
state  claims  control  in  many  more  particulars  than  does 
the  nation.  All  family  relations  —  marriage,  divorce, 
inheritance,  education  —  all  property  and  industrial 
conditions,  criminal  law,  and  suffrage,  are  under  the 
immediate  control  of  the  state. 

Although  the  Constitution  specifies  the  powers  of 
Congress  and  the  powers  of  the  states  and  later  on 
definitely  denies  certain  other  powers,  there  is,  be- 
yond the  permissions  and  the  denials,  a  wide  range  of 
lawful  latitude.  Thus  "  Congress  "  according  to  the 
first  amendment,  "  shall  make  no  law  respecting  an  es- 
tablishment of  religion,  or  prohibiting  the  free  exer- 
cise thereof."  This  does  not  forbid  the  states  from 
"  prohibiting  the  exercise  thereof  " ;  in  fact,  in  many 
states  for  a  long  time  after  1787  religious  tests  were 
appHed.  There  is  nothing  in  the  Constitution  to  pre- 
vent Minnesota  from  establishing  a  state  church. 
The  constitution  of  Minnesota,  however,  as  of  all  the 
other  states,  does  specifically  forbid  such  a  law. 

CONGRESSIONAL    GOVERNMENT 

The  United  States  Congress,  until  very  recently, 
made  all  laws  independently  of  the  President,  whose 
only  "  check  "  on  them  was  his  veto.  In  the  actual 
carrying  out  of  legislation,  both  houses  are  divided  into 
a  large  number  of  committees  to  which  the  various  bills 


THE  AMERICAN  GOVERNxMENT  125 

are  "  referred."  The  committees  consider  the  bills  and 
bring  up  those  that  they  "  approve  "  for  discussion 
and  possible  enactment.  Any  member  of  Congress  can 
present  a  "  bill  "  and  while,  of  course,  most  of  the  bills 
are  "  killed  "  in  committee,  unnecessarily  vast  numbers 
are  brought  before  each  session  of  Congress.  In  the 
discussion  of  bills  the  members  of  the  House  of  Repre- 
sentatives arc  restricted  to  definite  limits.  Until  recent 
years  the  Speaker  of  the  House  wielded  autocratic 
power  over  debate  but  of  late  his  prerogative  has  been 
distinctly  curtailed.  Thus  the  government  of  the 
United  States  has  grown  to  be  a  government  by  com- 
mittees in  which  no  one  is  particularly  responsible  to 
any  one  else.  In  other  words,  the  Constitution  of  the 
United  States  has  failed  to  provide  for  the  very  im- 
portant feature  of  "  responsibility  "  in  government. 

This  method'  of  congressional  government,  or  govern- 
ment by  committee,  as  it  is  in  use  in  the  United  States, 
may  be  better  understood  when  contrasted  with  govern- 
ment by  cabinet  or  by  a  responsible  ministry  such  as 
is  in  use  in  Great  Britain.  The  difference  between  the 
two  methods  may  be  shown  by  a  comparison  of  the 
financial  systems  of  the  two  countries. 

OUR    FINANCIAL.    SYSTEM 

In  England  the  finances  of  the  government  are  man- 
aged in  a  careful  and  scientific  manner.  The  Chan- 
cellor of  the  Exchequer  prepares  an  exact  report  of 
the  expenditures  of  the  year,  giving  the  source  of  rev- 
enue and  the  income  derived  therefrom.  This  report 
shows  on  its  balance  sheet  the  deficiency  or  the  surplus 
which  must  never  vary  more  than  $100,000  from  the 
amount  raised.  Then  from  the  heads  of  bureaus  and 
departments,  he  gets  most  carefully  itemized  estimates 


126  AMERICAN  DEMOCRACY 

of  the  proposed  expenditures  for  the  ensuing  year. 
After  the  report  has  been  thoroughly  revised  by  the 
cabinet,  the  Chancellor  reports  on  sources  of  taxation 
and  proposes  various  methods  of  raising  revenue.  The 
whole  report  is  then  printed  and  embodied  in  a  bill,  the 
"  Budget  "  for  the  coming  year,  which  the  Chancellor 
introduces  into  the  House  of  Commons  where  he  works 
with  might  and  main  to  have  the  measure  passed. 

In  the  United  States  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury 
makes  a  report  of  the  expenditures  of  the  preceding 
year.  Thus  far  the  report  is  exact.  Then  he  makes 
what  is  often  a  very  much  inflated  estimate  —  based  on 
recommendations  from  the  heads  of  departments  —  of 
proposed  expenditures  for  the  following  year.  He  adds 
suggestions  for  raising  the  money  and  sends  the  com- 
plete report  to  the  House  of  Representatives.  There 
his  connection  with  the  legislation  on  finances  ceases. 
The  Committee  on  Ways  and  Means  then  takes  charge 
of  raising  the  money;  but  once  it  is  raised,  they  have 
nothing  to  say  about  spending  it.  The  debit  and  credit 
sides  of  our  government  have  little  connection.  The 
spending  of  the  money  is  intrusted  to  nine  or  ten  dif- 
ferent committees.  Any  member  of  Congress  can 
bring  in  a  bill  asking  for  an  appropriation.  From  this 
general  grab-bag  method  of  procedure,  in  which  no  one 
person  or  group  of  persons  is  responsible  for  expendi- 
tures, enormous  waste  results.  Because  our  tariff  is 
not  for  revenue  alone,  but  for  protection  also,  the 
amount  raised  has  nothing  to  do  with  the  amount  to  be 
spent,  and  the  task  is  to  find  ways  of  spending  the 
money.  In  fact,  the  national  financial  system  of  the 
United  States  is  about  as  bad  as  it  well  can  be.  Only 
our  immense  wealth  and  great  good-nature  have  allowed 
this  system  —  or  lack  of  system  —  to  continue.     Noth- 


THE  AMERICAN  GOVERNMENT  127 

ing  of  all  this  appears  in  the  Constitution;  it  has  grad- 
ually and  unconsciously  "  happened."  The  introduc- 
tion of  a  "  budget  "  system  is  one  of  the  questions  that 
is,  at  the  present  time,  frequently  and  vigorously  dis- 
cussed in  Washington. 

IMPORTANCE    OF    THE    PRESIDENT 

Because  of  the  great  size  and  consequent  clumsiness 
of  our  legislative  body,  because  of  the  growth  of  the 
volume  of  government  business,  because  of  the  great 
number  of  technical  questions  that  are  constantly  aris- 
ing, and,  above  all,  because  of  the  demand  for  speed  in 
getting  business  done,  there  has,  of  late  years,  been  a 
great  rise  in  the  importance  of  the  President,  an  of- 
ficial whom  the  framers  wished  to  be  merely  a  sort  of 
spokesman  for  Congress.  The  men  of  the  Constitu- 
tional Convention  would  indeed  be  horrified  at  the  wreck 
that  has  been  made  of  their  delicate  and  ingenious  sys- 
tem of  checks  and  balances,  and  at  the  influence 
which  the  chief  executive  of  the  United  States  now 
wields.  He  is  not  only  the  leader  of  his  party  in  the 
government  but  he  is  truly  the  tribune  of  the  people  — 
the  one  person  in  the  United  States,  who,  if  he  so 
desires,  can  command  the  attention  of  all  the  citizens 
of  the  country  every  morning  in  the  year. 

A  great  impetus  toward  this  overpowering  influence 
of  the  President  was  given  during  the  administration 
of  Theodore  Roosevelt.  It  has  continued  and  grown 
since  that  time  largely  in  the  interests  of  efficiency.  It 
has  become  necessary  that  things  should  move  and  the 
President,  being  the  one  man  always  at  his  post  of  duty, 
has  been  forced  to  take  the  reins  of  government  into  his 
own  hands  and  drive  the  governmental  chariot,  no 
matter  how  rough  the  road  may  be. 


128  AMERICAN  DEMOCRACY 

On  the  opening  of  Congress*  the  President  in  his  mes- 
sage "  on  the  state  of  the  country  "  presents  before  the 
two  houses  the  measures  that  he  wishes  to  have  passed 
for  what  he  conceives  to  be  the  common  good.  This 
message  goes  to  the  country  on  the  same  day  that  Con- 
gress receives  it.  The  people  of  the  nation  watch  the 
progress  of  the  bills  that  are  introduced.  If  they  are 
going  wrong  or  if  outside  interests  are  unduly  influen- 
cing legislation,  the  President  can  sound  the  alarm  to 
the  country  and  thus  drive  the  lobbyists  out  of  the  field 
or  into  darker  corners. 

The  measures  that  the  President  advocates  are  gen- 
erally put  through.  President  Roosevelt  used  the 
"  big  stick  "  to  accomplish  that  purpose.  Even  Presi- 
dent Taft,  naturally  of  a  judicial  and  slow-moving 
temperament,  was  once  compelled  in  the  last  month  of  a 
session  to  crack  the  whip  over  Congress  and  virtually 
drive  through  the  measures  that  he  had  advocated  in  his 
annual  message.  President  Wilson  carried  the  Presi- 
dent's influence  still  further.  He  cast  aside  the  custom 
of  sending  written  messages  to  Congress  and,  as  was 
Washington's  usage,  appeared  in  person  to  address 
the  National  Legislature. 

The  influence  of  the  President  of  the  United  States 
is  to-day  the  most  striking  feature  of  our  government. 
He  is  the  leader  of  the  government  if  not  the  leader  of 
the  nation.  This  centering  of  the  business  of  conduct- 
ing the  government  in  the  hands  of  one  man  makes  for 
greater  "  simplicity,  directness,  and  strength  "  and,  in 
a  sense,  supplies  that  feature  of  ministerial  responsi- 
bility to  the  popular  will  that  our  government  has 
lacked.  It  is,  therefore,  increasingly  important  that 
really  great  leaders  be  selected  to  run  for  president 
that  the  right  men  may  be  chosen  for  this  high  office- 


THE  AMERICAN  GOVERNMENT  129 


GROWTH    TOWARD    DEMOCRACY 

In  looking  back  over  the  history  of  the  modifications 
that  have  been  made  in  our  government,  not  only  by 
amendment  and  interpretation  but  by  new  practices, 
it  appears  entirely  evident  that  the  changes,  taken  as 
a  whole,  have  brought  the  Federal  Government  much 
nearer  the  people  than  it  was  at  the  beginning  and  have 
thus  helped  to  build  up  a  greater  realization  of  nation- 
hood. 


Courtesy  of  AUyu  and  Bacon 
The  First  Philippine  AssemblYj  1907 

The  process,  however,  is  by  no  means  completed  and 
ways  are  constantly  being  sought  to  more  justly  ex- 
press the  popular  will.  Among  the  plans  recently  de- 
vised to  bring  about  a  more  direct  control  by  the  peo- 
ple, are  the  initiative,  the  referendum,  and  the  recall. 
These  have  been  introduced,  not  only  in  city  govern- 
ments, but  in  many  state  governments.  The  initiative 
enables  a  group  of  citizens  to  bring  a  desired  measure 
before  the  legislative  body,  without  the  necessity  of  wait- 
ing for  its  presentation  by  a  legislator;  the  referenduni 
calls  for  ratification  by  the  people  of  any  measure  affect- 


130 


AMERICAN  DEMOCRACY 


ing  them ;  the  recall  "is  the  gun  behind  the  door,"  which 
secures  responsible  officers  of  government  by  making  it 
possible  to  unseat  an  unsatisfactory  official  by  a  vote 
of  the  people  who  elected  him.  The  efficacy  of  these 
new  schemes  for  expressing  the  popular  will  has  not 
as  yet  been  fully  proved,  but  they  at  least  show  the  fun- 
damental desire  on  the  part  of  the  vast  majority  of  the 
people  of  the  United  States  to  make  the  government  of 
this  country  really  and  truly  a  government  of  all  the 
people. 


Photograph  by    Clinedinst. 

The  Lincoln  Memorial,  Washington, 
D.  C. 
The  final  and  complete  statement  of 
the  ideal  of  American  Democracy: 
"A  government  of  the  people,  for  the 
people,  and  by  the  people." 


CHAPTER  VII 

GREAT  MOVEMENTS  THAT  INFLUENCED 

POPULAR  GOVERNMENT  IN 

THE  UNITED  STATES 


Forever  alive,  forever  forward, 

Stately,  solemn,  sad,  withdrawn,  baffled,  mad,  turbulent,  feeble, 

dissatisfied. 
Desperate,  proud,  fond,  sick,  accepted  by  men,  rejected  by  men. 
They  go!  they  go!     I  know  that  they  go,  but  I  know  not  where 

they  go. 
But   I   know  that   they  go  toward  the   best  —  toward   something 

great.  Walt  Whitman. 

Among  the  factors  or  movements  that  have  inter- 
acted upon  each  other  and  upon  the  constitutional 
growth  of  the  government  may  be  noted  the  rise  of 
political  parties,  slavery,  the  tariff,  the  westward  ex- 
pansion and  free  land,  the  industrial  revolution,  the 
growth  of  labor  and  labor  unions,  and  the  extension 
of  popular  education.  These  movements  have  not 
been  distinct  and  separated  streams  of  influence ;  they 
were,  rather,  indistinguishably  mixed  in  the  current  of 
American  affairs.  But  because  they  have  given  a  rec- 
ognizable color  to  the  onflowing  life  of  the  government 
of  the  people,  it  is  helpful  to  consider  separately  each 
of  these  determining  features  of  American  development. 

POLITICAL    PARTIES 

Political  parties  began  to  be  formed  almost  as  soon 

as  our  government  was  established.     The  division  first 

131 


132  AMERICAN  DEMOCRACY 

came  because  of  two  views  of  the  purposes  of  govern- 
ment, one  of  which  vv-as  championed  by  Hamilton  and 
the  other  by  Jefferson.  Hamilton,  who  headed  the 
Federalist  party,  was  in  favor  of  a  strong  national  gov- 
ernment controlled  by  "  the  well-educated  and  well- 
born," which  should  be  properly  used  to  protect  com- 


Tiro^iAS  Jeffersok 

merce  and  industry  against  foreign  competition.  Jef- 
ferson, as  spokesman  of  the  anti-Federahsts  who  called 
themselves  Republicans  to  show  their  hatred  of  mon- 
archy, and  favored  strengthening  the  state  govern- 
ments, hoped  that  the  United  States  would  become  a 
nation  of  small  independent  land-owners. 


GREAT  NATIONAL  MOVEMENTS 


133 


From  the  first,  the  contest  was  a  heated  one,  much 
to  the  distress  of  Washington,  who  spoke  severely 
against  the  "  baneful  effects  "  of  the  spirit  of  party 
and  the  disorders  and  miseries  which  resulted  from  it. 
John  Adams,  too,  was  horrified  at  the  "  unwarranted 
and  indecent  attempts  of  sending  agents  with  printed 
votes."  But,  in  spite  of  this  disapproval,  the  party 
breach  widened,  with  a  question  of  a  "  liberal  construc- 
tion "  of  the  Constitution 
as  the  dividing  line. 
Both  parties  in  turn 
used  the  liberal  construc- 
tion to  suit  their  own 
ends,  a  practice  which 
after  a  time  made  Con- 
gress the  dominant  force 
of  our  federal  system  of 
•Government. 

Washington  and  Adams 
were  Federalists,  the 
four  Presidents  following 
—  Jefferson,  Madison, 
Monroe,  and  Adams  — 
were        Repubh'can-Demo- 

crats  as  the  anti-Federalists  came  to  be  called.  The 
Federalist  Party  disappeared  at  the  close  of  the  War 
of  1812,  after  the  leaders  in  the  Hartford  Convention 
had  threatened  to  secede  from  the  Union  because  trade 
was  being  interfered  with. 

Monroe's  administration  (1817-1825)  was  the  Era 
of  Good  Feeling,  there  being  no  party  issues  during  his 
two  terms  of  office.  But  soon  the  tariff  question  began 
to  be  felt  as  a  cause  for  division  —  the  manufactur- 
ing North  seeking  protection  for  its  industries,  while 


Alexastder  Hamilton 

After  an  prt'imrinti  hij  J.  Rnriers 
from  the  Tnlleyiand  miniature 


134  AMERICAN  DEMOCRACY 

the  agricultural  South  advocated  free  trade. 

By  the  close  of  Jackson's  first  term,  the  Republican- 
Democrats  had  become  simply  Democrats,  a  name  which 
they  have  since  that  time  retained.  By  this  time  the 
National  Republicans  formed  a  new  party,  standing  for 
principles  similar  to  those  of  the  Federalists.  After  a 
time,  members  of  the  new  party  called  themselves  Whigs. 

The  Whig  party,  of  which  for  many  years  Henry 
Clay  was  the  leader,  stood  for  a  strong  Federal  Gov- 
ernment, a  liberal  construction  of  the  Constitution,  per- 
manent internal  improvements,  a  protective  tariff,  and 
the  national  bank.  The  Democrats,  on  the  whole,  stood 
for  the  Union,  which  had  already  been  attacked  by 
Calhoun  and  the  believers  in  nullification,  but  they  op- 
posed a  high  tariff,  internal  improvements,  and  the 
national  bank ;  they  advocated  government  directly 
under  the  control  of  the  people.  The  Whigs  succeeded 
in  electing  William  Henry  Harrison  in  1840  but  failed 
to  carry  out  their  program  because  of  Harrison's  early 
death.   * 

By  1840,  the  slavery  question,  which  had  always  had 
its  influence  came  openly  to  the  front  and  a  new  politi- 
cal party,  whose  chief  plank  was  opposition  to  slavery, 
grew  out  of  the  old  Whig  and  Democratic  parties. 
The  leaders  in  this  movement  named  the  organization 
the  Liberty  party  but  later  called  themselves  the  Free 
Soil  party. 

Finally  in  1854,  the  Whig  party  having  in  turn  gone 
to  pieces,  the  Republican  party  held  its  first  national 
convention.  Many  anti-slavery  Democrats  joined  the 
new  party  which  demanded  that  slavery  be  prohibited 
in  the  territories  and  that  Kansas  be  admitted  as  a  free 
state.  At  the  second  national  convention  of  the  Re- 
publican party  in  1860,  the  platform  declared  against 


GREAT  NATIONAL  MOVEMENTS  135 

slavery  in  the  territories,  and  stood  for  a  protective 
tariff  and  free  homesteads.  "  The  agricultural  South 
and  the  industrial  North  were  pitted  against  each  other 
with  the  free  farmers  of  the  West  holding  the  balance 
of  power." 

Since  the  War  of  Secession,  the  Democratic  and  Re- 
publican parties  have  stood  in  the  main  for  the  princi- 
ples on  which  they  were  formed,  old  planks  dropping 
out  of  their  platforms  as  they  became  dead  issues  while 
new  ones  were  added  as  new  conditions  arose.  The 
Democrats  stand  for  low  tariff,  greater  popular  con- 
trol, and  against  imperialism  or  annexation  by  con- 
quest ;  the  Republicans  for  high  tariff,  for  an  imperial- 
istic policy,  and  generally  for  a  narrower  control  of 
the  government. 

The  Republican  party  held  unbroken  power  from 
the  time  of  the  War  of  Secession  to  1885.  Since  that 
time  Harrison,  McKinley,  Roosevelt,  Taft,  and  Hard- 
ing have  been  Republican  Presidents;  Cleveland  and 
Wilson,  Democratic  Presidents. 

In  1912  the  Republican  party  split  and  the  Progres- 
sive party,  headed  by  Theodore  Roosevelt,  was  formed. 
This  party  endorsed  presidential  primaries,  the  initia- 
tive and  referendum,  popular  election  of  United  States 
senators,  the  short  ballot,  woman  suffrage,  legislation 
in  favor  of  labor,  a  minimum  wage  for  women  and  child- 
ren, protection  of  working  people,  and  regulation  of 
monopolies  and  trusts.  In  fact,  the  party  made  a  de- 
termined effort  to  out-democrat  the  Democrats. 

The  Democrats  at  the  same  period  stood  for  a  down- 
ward revision  of  the  tariff,  a  tax  on  incomes,  regulation 
of  trusts  and  monopolies,  labor  legislation,  and  federal 
reserve  banks  to  reduce  the  power  of  the  great  banking 


136  AMERICAN  DEMOCRACY 

centers.  Both  parties  made  a  bid  for  the  labor 
vote  which  now  holds  the  balance  of  power.  In  1912  the 
Democrats  succeeded  in  getting  most  of  the  labor  votes 
with  the  result  that  Woodrow  Wilson  was  elected  Presi- 
dent. ,  .^  .      "  '•-  : 

Short-lived,  small  parties  have  been  formed  during 
late  years  but  have  not  been  able  to  gain  many  offices. 
The  farming  interests  of  the  West  have  several  times 
organized  themselves  for  the  sake  of  gaining  political 
recognition.  The  first  was  the  Greenback  party  which 
had  a  brief  career  during  the  late  70's.  The  Populist 
party,  which  came  into  life  in  1892  on  a  free  silver  plat- 
form, was  at  one  time  able  to  muster  a  million  votes,  but 
soon  declined.  Its  present  descendant  is  the  Non-Parti- 
san Le'ague  which  though  not  yet  recognized  as  a  na- 
tional party  has  gained  control  in  North  Dakota 
where  it  is  trying  out  some  interesting  experiments  in 
state  control  of  industries  and  public  service  utilities. 
The  Prohibition  party  was  never  able  to  elect  its  can- 
didates to  office  in  any  great  numbers,  but  that  it  has 
had  a  telling  influence  on  the  popular  mind  is  clearly 
evidenced  by  the  18th  amendment  to  the  Constitution. 

The  Socialist  party  which  has  existed  as  a  national 
party  for  a  number  of  years,  has  not  been  able  to  make 
much  of  an  impression  on  national  politics.  Many  of 
the  votes  it  counts  are  votes  of  protest  against  the  poli- 
cies and  control  of  the  two  old  parties. 

In  1920  the  Farmer-Labor  party  was  launched.  It 
is  made  up  largely  of  persons  who  are  discontented 
with  the  present  conduct  of  our  government,  but  are 
not  ready  to  subscribe  to  Socialistic  doctrine.  In  their 
1920  conventions  the  Socialists  and  the  Farmer-La'bor 
parties  both  put  forth  platforms  advocating  greater 
popular  control  of  economic  and  governmental  affairs. 


GREAT  NATIONAL  MOVEMENTS  137 

Political  parties  have  had  a  great  influence  on  the 
development  of  the  government  of  the  people.  They 
have  both  helped  and  hindered.  While  they  have  been  a 
powerful  rneajis  qf^ucat^ing^the  people  in  the  practice 
of  carrying  on  government,  they  have  also  sometimes 
retarded  progress.  /  Thousands  of  voters  have  been 
party  men,  pure  and  simple:  they  were  born  Democrats 
or  Republicans  and  they  died  Democrats  or  Republi- 
cans bequeathing  their  political  faith  to  their  sons. 
^Measures  proposed  by  one  party,  no  matter  how  com- 
mendable, are  generally  opposed  and  frequently  defeated 
by  the  other  party,  with  seeming  disregard  for  the  wel- 
fare of  the  country  as  a  whole.  The  candidates  for 
office  set  up  by  either  part\^  have  been  savagely  reviled 
by  the  members  of  the  other  and  vital  issues  are  often 
clouded  by  prejudice  and  party  feeling. 

On  the  whole,  however,  political  parties  have  done 
much  towards  the  development  of  political  democracy. 
In  the  heat  and  conflict  of  debate  new  and  better  ideas 
spring  into  life.  The  great  questions  which  are  to  be 
decided  are  advertised,  and  in  the  long  run,  measures 
that  are  for  the  common  good  are  agreed  to  by  the 
majority  of  the  people  and  made  the  law' of  the  land, 

SLAVERY 

The  slavery  question  is  bound  up  almost  inseparably 
with  political  parties,  the  industrial  revolution,  the 
westward  movement,  and  other  great  features  of  our 
national  life.  Though  as  a  political  question,  slavery 
is  dead,  the  negro  question  is  yet  unsolved.  Slaves 
were  introduced  into  the  South  primarily  to  perform 
menial  agricultural  labor  in  that  warm  climate.  Later, 
for  many  years,  slavery  existed  in  all  of  the  thirteen 
states.  When  the  Constitution  was  adopted,  it  was 
thought  that  slavery  would  die  out  of  itself  as  it  had 


138  AMERICAN  DExMOCRACY 

already  begun  to  die  out  in  the  North.  But  the  inven- 
tion of  the  cotton-gin  and  the  consequent  increase  in 
cotton  production  gave  new  life  to  slavery  in  the  South 
so  that  although  the  slave-trade  was  abolished  in  1808, 
by  1860  there  were  about  four  million  slaves  in  the 
United  States. 

At  first  slavery  did  not  show  itself  openly  as  an 
influence  on  politics,  but  it  was  not  long  until  it  began 
to  divide  the  North  and  the  South.  Although  one  of 
the  compromises  of  the  Constitution  had  settled  the 
question  of  representation  in  Congress,  the  question  as 
to  whether  the  federal  government  or  the  state  govern- 
ments should  regulate  slavery  in  the  new  states  and  in 
the  territories  soon  began  to  be  fiercely  debated.  The 
discussion  of  the  right  of  Congress  to  prohibit  slavery 
"  forever  "  north  of  the  36-30  line  resulted  in  bitter 
sectional  strife.  Texas  was  admitted  as  a  slave  state, 
California  as  a  free  state;  Utah  and  New  Mexico  were 
left  to  decide  the  matter  for  themselves;  the  Northern 
people  refused  to  assist  in  capturing  slaves ;  the  South 
succeeded  in  getting  the  Fugitive  Slave  Law  passed; 
the  question  of  the  admission  of  Kansas  and  Nebraska 
as  slave  or  free  states  arose;  and  the  struggle  for  that 
territory  between  the  North  and  the  South  began. 

In  the  meantime,  the  Abolitionist  movement  was  well 
under  way,  and  compromises  for  a  time  dela^-ed  open 
war.  The  South  attempted  to  annex  Cuba  that  addi- 
tional slave  territory  might  be  added  to  the  United 
States.  Finally,  it  became  evident  to  thoughtful  peo- 
ple that  the  country  could  not  exist  "half  slave  and 
half  free."  Not  long  after  that,  the  War  of  Secession 
settled  the  question  of  slavery  in  the  United  States  for- 
ever. 

Since  the  abolition  of  slavery,  the  United  States  has 


GREAT  NATIONAL  MOVEMENTS 


139 


had  the  still  unsettled  negro  question  to  deal  with. 
After  Emancipation,  the  negroes,  no  longer  slaves,  were 
found  utterly  untrained  and  unfit  to  earn  their  living 
independently,  or  to  use  their  vote  intelligently.  The 
politicians  in  the  North  wished  to  give  the  negro  the 
vote  at  once.  The  people  in  the  South,  who  naturally 
look  upon  the  black  man  as  an  inferior,  have  made  laws 
that  have  kept  the  vote  from  most  of  the  negroes,  in 


Courtesy  of  AUyn  aud  Bacon 

TusKEGEE  Institute,  Aijvbama 

Founded  by  Booker  T.  Washington  for  the  advancement  of  the 
colored  race. 


spite  of  the  fact  that  the  Thirteenth  Amendment  freed 
the  slaves,  the  Fourteenth  Amendment  made  them  citi- 
zens and  gave  them  civil  rights,  and  the  Fifteenth 
Amendment  forbade  disfranchisement  "  on  account  of 
race,  color,  or  previous  condition  of  servitude."  Prop- 
erty, educational,  and  other  restrictions  have  deprived 
most  of  the  negroes  in  the  South  of  the  ballot. 


140  AMERICAN  DEMOCRACY 

The  negro  question  is  still  one  of  the  urgent 
questions  for  the  United  States  to  solve.  Opinion  is 
divided  as  to  how  it  should  be  settled.  Whatever  is 
finally  done  for  the  negroes,  no  one  should  oppose  meas- 
ures to  bring  about  a  good  degree  of  education,  both 
industrial  and  cultural.  Justice  demands  nothing  less, 
as  justice  demands  a  prompt  and  fair  adjustment 
of  this  vexed  problem. 

THE    TARIFF 

The  tariff  has  been  a  live  issue  since  the  first  tariff 
measure  was  attempted  in  1781.  At  that  time  a  flat 
tax  of  five  per  cent,  was  proposed  on  imported  articles 
for  three  distinct  purposes:  to  pay  the  national  debt, 
to  pay  the  Continental  army,  and  to  carry  on  the  gov- 
ernment. In  other  words,  the  tariff  was  originally  in- 
tended to  be  "  for  revenue  only."  The  measure  was 
rejected  because  under  the  Articles  of  Confederation  it 
required  the  consent  of  every  state,  and  Rhode  Island 
refused  consent  as  she  was  well  satisfied  with  her  own 
tariff  laws  by  means  of  which  she  was  exacting  toll  from 
her  neighbors. 

The  first  tariff  act  was  passed  in  1789  as  one  of 
Alexander  Hamilton's  great  financial  measures.  It 
was  designed  to  pay  the  national  debt,  to  carry  on  the 
government,  and  to  encourage  and  protect  manufac- 
tures —  that  is,  it  was  a  tariff  both  "  for  revenue  "  and 
"  for  protection."  It  provided  a  duty  on  all  foreign 
vessels,  on  various  foreign  goods  —  wines,  tea,  silk, 
sugar  —  at  varying  rates.  At  once  a  division  of 
opinion  arose  as  to  whether  Congress  or  the  states  had 
the  authority  to  regulate  tariff  for  protection. 

Henry  Clay,  called  the  father  of  the  protective  tariff, 
was  responsible  for  the  tariff  of  1816,  the  first  definitely 


GREAT  NATIONAL  MOVEMENTS  141 

protective  measure  which  laid  an  import  tax  on  cottons, 
woolens,  and  manufactured  iron.  At  that  time  there 
was  a  real  need  of  protection  to  American  manufac- 
tures because  of  the  "  dumping "  of  foreign  goods, 
which  had  accumulated  during  the  War  of  1812,  on 
American  markets.  In  the  South,  John  C.  Calhoun,  a 
Republican-Democrat  of  South  Carolina,  favored  the 
tariff  because  he  thought  it  would  affect  the  cotton 
market  favorably ;  Daniel  Webster,  a  Federalist  of 
Massachusetts  who  represented  a  commercial  and  ship- 
ping business,  opposed  it  because  he  felt  that  any  tariff 
would  tend  to  restrict  commercial  relations  with  Eu- 
rope. Later  the  North  and  South  reversed  positions. 
In  the  main,  the  agricultural  South  has  favored  a  low 
tariff  because  it  had  no  manufactures  that  needed  pro- 
tection but  desired  imported  articles  at  the  lowest  pos- 
sible prices,  while  the  manufacturing  North  has  sought 
a  high  tariff  that  would  protect  its  growing  industries 
from  foreign  competition.  From  this  it  is  seen  that  the 
protective  tariff  was  favored  by  the  interests  that  would 
be  helped  by  protection. 

The  tariff  for  protection,  called  the  American  Sys- 
tem, increased  in  favor  as  a  national  policy,  until  the 
"  Tariff  of  Abominations  "  of  1828,  passed  largely  as  a 
political  measure  to  make  President  John  Quincy  Adams 
unpopular,  raised  the  average  of  taxed  articles  forty- 
nine  per  cent.  It  had  the  desired  effect  and  Jackson 
was  elected  President.  This  extreme  measure  opened 
up  the  question  of  "  nullification  " ;  for  South  Carolina, 
refusing  to  pay  the  unreasonable  rates,  began  to  pre- 
pare for  war.  By  this  time  New  England  with  its  large 
manufacturing  interests,  was  in  favor  of  a  protective 
tariff,  while  the  South,  largely  dependent  upon  Europe 
for  its  farm  machinery,  and  other  manufactured  goods, 


142  AMERICAN  DEMOCRACY 

was  hotly  opposed  to  it.  To  prevent  a  rupture,  Clay 
stepped  in  with  the  compromise  tariff  of  1833  which 
greatly  reduced  rates  on  imported  articles;  whereupon 
South  Carolina  repealed  her  Nullification  Ordinance. 

A  period  of  low  tariff  followed  until  the  duties  were 
more  moderate  than  they  had  been  in  1816.  In  Polk's 
administration  (1844-1848),  the  tariff  sank  so  low 
that  it  was  merely  a  measure  for  carrying  on  the  gov- 
ernment. In  Buchanan's  administration  (1857-1861), 
the  first  tariff  measure  since  1816,  not  affected  by  poli- 
tics, was  passed. 

During  the  War  of  Secession,  an  increase  of  duties 
came  about  as  a  natural  result  of  the  need  of  money  to 
carry  on  the  war  and  of  the  influence  of  profiteering  fi- 
nancial leaders.  As  a  consequence,  protection  ran  riot; 
every  one  who  asked  protection  got  it.  The  tariff  act 
passed  during  the  war  forms  the  basis  of  the  present 
tariff  system.  After  the  war  internal  taxes  were  re- 
duced and  tariff  duties  increased. 

The  tariff  question  was  the  leading  issue  between  the 
Democratic  and  Republican  parties  from  1870  to  1911. 
Since  that  time,  though  it  is  by  no  means  dead,  ques- 
tions of  Capital  and  Labor  have  in  a  measure  crowded 
the  tariff  issues  out  of  the  public  mind.  During  that 
period  though  tariff  rates  fluctuated,  on  the  whole,  the 
great  industries  were  adequately  protected. 

In  Cleveland's  first  term  (1884-1888),  an  unsuc- 
cessful attempt  was  made  to  reduce  the  tariff;  in  Harri- 
son's administration  (1888-1892),  the  McKinley  bill 
brought  the  acme  of  high  protection  in  which  the  con- 
sumer paid  the  bill.  Efforts  have  of  late  been  made  to 
find  out  whether  there  is  any  real  need  of  a  burdensome 
tariff.  Other  sources  of  revenue  have  been  provided 
such  as  the  corporation  tax,  and  the  inheritance  tax. 


GREAT  NATIONAL  MOVEMENTS  143 

President  Taft  tried  to  bring  about  Canadian  "  reci- 
procity," by  which  natural  productions  would  be  ex- 
changed between  the  United  States  and  Canada  with- 
out duties.  This  measure  was  opposed  by  the  farmers 
of  the  Northwest  and,  as  a  consequence,  party  lines  were 
thrown  into  confusion.  In  Canada  the  party  that 
supported  reciprocity  was  defeated  and  the  bill  never 
came  up  in  the  Canadian  Parliament.  In  President 
Wilson's  administration,  the  Underwood-Simmons  tariff 
bill  became  a  law  and  the  tariff  was  reduced  on  many 
important  commodities.  To  make  up  for  the  loss,  a 
tax  on  incomes  was  levied  after  an  amendment  to  the 
Constitution  made  such  a  levy  possible. 

The  tariff  question  which  began  when  a  revenue  meas- 
ure with  incidental  protection  for  infant  industries  was 
passed,  has  grown  from  a  small  and  comparatively 
simple  factor  in  American  government  to  one  of  im- 
mense importance  and  bewildering  complications.  The 
North,  being  chiefly  engaged  in  manufacturing,  has 
stood  largely  for  high  tariff;  the  South,  mainly  agri- 
cultural, has  been  solidly  for  low  tariff,  until  the  recent 
introduction  of  manufacturing  into  that  section.  As 
the  West  developed,  its  population  was  divided  on  the 
tariff  question,  according  to  whether  it  was  engaged  in 
agriculture  or  in  manufacturing.  The  question  in  the 
main  has  been  one  of  self-interest. 

In  general,  the  Democrats  have  stood  for  low  tariff, 
and  the  Republicans  for  high  tariff.  During  the  last 
thirty  years  there  has  been  a  growing  suspicion  that 
the  tariff  is  manipulated  by  the  money  power  of  the 
country  for  selfish  ends.  At  the  present  time,  party 
lines  are  not  strictly  drawn  on  the  tariff  issue.  Many 
Republicans  are  losing  their  devotion  to  high  tariff 
rates,  while,  on  the  other  hand,  many  Democrats  no 


GREAT  NATIONAL  MOVEMENTS 


145 


longer  stand  for  tariff  for  revenue  only,  but  for  a  mod- 
ified form  of  protection. 

THE    WESTWARD    EXPANSION    AND    FREE    LAND 

The  Westward  movement,  which  was  caused  by  the 
fact  that  toward  the  West  free  land  was  to  be  had  for 
the  taking,  has  had  a  definite  and  direct  influence  on  the 
growth  of  political   and   social  democracy.     Although 


Going  West 

the  colonists  who  came  over  from  Europe  left  be- 
hind them  much  of  the  paraphernalia  of  rank  and  class, 
they  brought  with  them  much  more  of  it  than  is  de- 
sirable in  a  country  where  the  people  rule.  In  the 
South  particularly,  labor  of  the  hands  was  looked  upon 
as  degrading;  even  in  "  democratic  "New  England,  the 
tradesman  and  his  wife  always  went  to  the  inn-kitchen, 
while  the  "  gentry  "  sedately  passed  to  the  parlor. 


146  AMERICAN  DEMOCRACY 

But  when  the  pioneers  passed  over  the  mountains  or 
through  the  gaps  into  Kentucky,  Ohio,  Indiana  and  be- 
yond, social  distinctions  fell  off  at  once.  Everybody 
was  forced  to  labor  with  his  hands,  and  the  settlers 
naturally  fell  into  the  habit  of  lending  aid  to  each 
other  when  help  was  needed,  as  in  "  raising  "  a  house, 
husking  corn,  and  at  haying  and  harvest  time.  Men  be- 
came truly  "  fellow-men  "  in  the  days  of  pioneer  settle- 
ments. 

The  fact  that  every  man  owned  his  own  land  made 
for  sturdy  independence  and  honest  pride  in  possession. 
The  independent  western  pioneers  showed  a  remarkable 
community  spirit  in  working  out  questions  for  the  com- 
mon good.  From  the  beginning,  the  life  and  practice 
of  the  western  country  influenced  politics.  As  the 
states  beyond  the  Allcghanies  were  admitted  to  the 
Union,  they  came  in  with  liberal  constitutions  granting 
religious  freedom  and  wide  suffrage.  The  new  common- 
wealths did  not  copy  eastern  politics ;  they  set  up  a 
much  more  simple  machinery  of  government. 

The  westerners  distrusted  the  moneyed  people  of  the 
East,  who  they  believed  were  somehow  getting  rich  on 
government  money  at  Washington.  They  kept  their 
few  officers  —  sheriffs,  county  treasurers,  and  land- 
agents  —  constantly  rotating,  as  they  believed  in  pass- 
ing good  things  around.  This  new  spirit,  working 
against  the  life  job  in  politics,  continued  to  grow  until 
the  election  of  Andrew  Jackson  disturbed  the  tradition 
that  the  Secretary  of  State  should  succeed  to  the 
President's  chair  and  gave  the  last  blow  to  the  already 
tottering  Virginia  dynasty. 

The  more  real  democracy  which  resulted  had  in  it, 
however,  much  of  prejudice  and  perhaps  justified  dis- 
trust.    The  West  continued  for  many  years  to  be  "  dis- 


GREAT  NATIONAL  MOVEMENTS  147 

graced  "  politically.  The  homestead  law  of  1862,  per- 
mitting settlers  to  take  up  farms  without  cost,  gave 
great  impetus  to  Western  emigration.  The  West  has 
remained  "  the  land  of  the  liberal  air  " ;  the  man  from 
the  West  is  free  from  many  of  the  narrowing  traditions 
of  the  man  from  the  Eastern  sea-board.  Farmers' 
sons  become  lawyers,  physicians,  professors,  business 
men,  as  well  as  farmers,  and  the  mingling  of  "  cousins," 
city-bred  and  country-bred,  cultured  and  home-spun, 
on  an  equal  social  footing,  helps  to  break  down  "  caste." 
The  most  remarkable  and  influential  feature  of  west- 
ern expansion  has  been  the  fact  that  the  movement  has 
continued.  After  one  generation  had  cleared  the  for- 
ests and  settled  cities  at  one  place,  the  next  generation 
has  moved  Westward.  "  This  perennial  rebirth,  this 
fluidity  of  American  life,  this  expansion  Westward  with 
its  new  opportunities,  furnish  the  forces  dominating 
American  character." 

LABOR 

The  growth  of  democracy  has  been  powerfully  influ- 
enced by  the  industrial  revolution  and  the  increase  in 
the  number  of  skilled  and  unskilled  laborers.  Although 
probably  the  greater  number  of  people  in  the  colonies 
were  engaged  in  agricultural  pursuits  at  the  time  of  the 
Revolution,  a  healthy  growth  had  begun  in  manufac- 
turing and  ship-building.  In  all  likelihood,  however, 
the  United  States  would  have  remained  an  agricultural 
country  had  it  not  been  for  the  industrial  revolution 
caused  by  the  invention  of  machinery.  The  introduc- 
tion of  steam  and  iron  together  in  manufacturing, 
caused  the  rapid  rise  of  factories,  and  the  resulting,  em- 
ployment of  hundreds  of  thousands  of  unskilled  laborers 
tended  toward  greater  democracy. 


148  AMERICAN  DEMOCRACY 

Laboring  men  from  the  very  beginning  performed 
their  share  in  bringing  about  democratic  institutions. 
The  Sons  of  Liberty  who  paraded  the  streets  in  the  days 
of  the  Stamp  Act  were  working  men  —  laborers  and 
artisans.  The  mechanics  of  Boston,  though  outside  of 
the  meeting,  had  an  intelligent  understanding  of  the  ad- 
vantages of  adopting  the  Constitution  in  1787,  as  did 
the  plainly  clad  farmers  from  up-State,  who  sat  within. 
The  pump-makers  and  ship-chandlers  of  New  York 
were  vociferous  in  their  approval  of  the  Constitution. 
Few  of  these  men  had  the  right  to  vote  when  the  Con- 
stitution was  set  up,  yet  they  helped  the  movement  to- 
ward freedom  in  a  very  real  way. 

When  Capital  began  to  be  powerful  and  oppressive, 
the  laborers  and  working-men  formed  themselves  into 
labor  unions.  For  this  action  they  were  punished  and 
the  unions  broken  up.  A  well-defined  labor  movement 
in  the  earlier  half  of  the  nineteenth  century  had  been  al- 
most forgotten  until  its  records  were  recently  unearthed 
by  an  industrious  investigator.  These  early  labor  as- 
sociations stood  for  a  platform  that  included  universal 
education  at  the  state's  expense,  a  ten-hour  day,  the 
right  to  combine,  abolition  of  imprisonment  for  debt, 
exemption  of  a  laboring  man's  home  and  tools  from 
seizure  for  debt,  and  a  more  liberal  national  land  policy. 

After  the  great  influx  of  foreign  laborers,  suff^rage 
was  by  degrees  extended  to  take  in  all  male  citizens  of 
the  United  States.  When  the  working-people  began  to 
ask  for  schools  for  their  children,  it  was  considered  a 
very  radical  and  unreasonable  demand,  as  a  school  at 
the  public  expense  was  looked  upon  as  a  charity  school 
attended  only  by  paupers. 

The  influence  of  the  early  labor  movements  on  educa- 
tion and  politics  has  been  almost  lost  sight  of  because  of 


GREAT  NATIONAL  MOVEMENTS  140 

the  moral  stress  of  the  slavery  question,  which  absorbed 
the  attention  of  the  country  for  half  a  century.  With- 
in the  last  twenty  years,  however,  labor  has  become  a 
force  to  be  reckoned  with  in  politics.  The  laborer  has 
assumed  a  more  dignified  position  since  his  cause  has 
been  taken  up  by  the  great  pohtical  leaders,  who  see 
that  the  party  that  is  destined  to  live  must  have  the 
support  of  labor.  Socialism  has  had  its  influence  on 
the  labor  question  and  while  many  employers  still  deny 
the  right  of  the  laborers  to  organize,  it  is  coming  to  be 
accepted  that  labor  is  not  a  commodity  that  can  be 
bought  and  sold  and  that  laborers  have  the  right  to  be 
safeguarded  in  health  and  morals. 

Some  beginnings  of  a  labor  party  have  been  made 
but,  at  present,  it  is  likely  that  the  labor  unions  and 
laboring  men  will  continue  to  throw  their  influence  with 
the  political  party  that  seems  the  most  progressive. 
Since  the  war,  a  number  of  advanced  labor  programs 
have  been  put  forth,  one  of  which  lays  down  the  prin- 
ciple that  in  some  way  the  tools  of  the  laborers  —  in 
other  words,  the  manufacturing  plants  —  must  pass 
into  the  control  of  the  workmen,  that  they  may  share 
in  the  profits  of  the  industries  and  have  a  voice  in  reg- 
ulating the  conditions  of  labor.  Thinking  people  every- 
where are  looking  for  a  better  adjustment  between  capi- 
tal and  labor  to  be  realized  by  a  greater  democratiza- 
tion of  industry. 

THE    GROWTH    OF    EDUCATION 

Education  has  had  a  marked  influence  on  the  devel- 
opment of  the  American  government.  In  the  colonial 
days  in  New  England,  while  common  schools  were  estab- 
lished that  the  children  of  church-members  might  learn 
to  read  the  Bible,  onlv  the  most  elementarv  education 


150  AMERICAN  DEMOCRACY 

was  furnished  for  those  who  did  not  expect  to  enter  the 
ministry  or  the  learned  professions.  For  such  select 
pupils  the  Latin  schools  were  the  paths  to  the  colleges, 
which  at  first,  were  merely  theological  schools.  Girls 
received  scarcely  any  formal  education.  In  the  South 
where  the  people  lived  on  scattered  plantations,  the  sons 
of  the  wealthy  planters  had  private  tutors  while  the 
poor  people  had  no  schools  whatever.  The  first 
schools  at  public  expense  were  pauper  schools  in  which 
children  received  a  meager  education.  By  1830  the 
labor  unions  began  to  agitate  for  public  schools  from 
which  the  stigma  of  charity  should  be  removed.  Such 
schools  were  established  by  degrees,  though  for  a  long 
time  there  was  no  connecting  link  between  the  elemen- 
tary schools  and  the  colleges  except  the  private  acad- 
emy and  the  private  Latin  preparatory  school. 

Early  in  the  nineteenth  century,  academics  —  again 
for  boys  only  —  began  to  be  opened  in  various  parts  of 
the  country.  Though  these  schools  were  originally  in- 
tended to  give  preparation  for  college,  the  curriculum 
was  generally  more  practical  than  that  of  the  Latin 
school.  Presently  female  seminaries  for  wealthy  girls 
who  showed  an  aptitude  or  desire  for  education  came 
into  existence. 

Though  the  Northwest  Ordinance  of  1787  specifi- 
cally encouraged  education  and  provided  that  one  sec- 
tion of  each  township  should  be  public  school  land, 
there  were  no  public  schools  in  the  United  States  up  to 
1830.  Thomas  Jefferson,  a  century  ahead  of  his  time, 
had  attempted  to  establish  in  Virginia  a  complete  school 
system  from  the  primary  grades  through  the  university. 
His  plan  had  failed  because  the  people  were  not  ready 
for  such  a  step.  In  fact,  during  the  first  fifty  years 
of  the  Republic,  no  one  was  interested  in  popular  edu- 


GREAT  NATIONAL  MOVEMENTS  151 

cation.  The  school  lands  in  each  township  were  not 
properly  used;  and  therefore  they  were  not  much  help 
to  education. 


The  University  of  Virginia 

The  finest  example  of  classical  architecture  in  America.  To  this 
work  Jefferson  devoted  forty  years  of  his  thought  and  the  last 
years  of  his  life.  He  devised  tlie  entire  system  of  instruction  and 
every  feature  of  administration.  The  University  of  Virginia  has  no 
President  hut  instead  an  elected  Chairman;  it  has  no  set  course 
of  study,  each  student  follows  any  line  he  chooses,  degrees  being 
granted  after  examinations;  the  faculty  assumes  that  every  student 
is  a  man  of  honor,  the  student  body  looks  after  delinquencies.  To- 
day the  University  of  Virginia  is,  to  a  great  degree,  the  embodi- 
ment of  Jefferson's  views. 

By  1860,  the  first  public  high  schools  for  boys  were 
set  up;  these  high  schools  had  no  connection  with  the 
primary  system  nor  "with  the  universities.  Michigan 
was  the  first  state  to  have  a  complete  school  system  in- 


152  AMERICAN  DEMOCRACY 

eluding  the  primary  grades,  the  high  school,  and  the 
college. 

Since  the  War  of  Secession,  and  especially  within  the 
last  thirty  years,  schools  have  grown  all  over  the 
country  —  public,  private,  parochial.  Almost  every 
state  has  its  state  university;  every  town  of  any  size 
has  a  high  school ;  thousands  of  academies,  business  col- 
leges, parochial  and  convent  schools,  junior  colleges  and 
senior  colleges  have  arisen  almost  over  night.  Rural 
education,  though  by  no  means  adequately  provided 
for,  has  taken  great  strides  since  the  institution  of  con- 
solidated schools.  Vast  sums  of  money  are  spent  for 
educational  purposes,  yet,  in  spite  of  that  fact,  whole 
sections  of  the  country,  particularly  in  the  South,  are 
practically  without  the  means  of  education. 

The  great  public  school  system  of  the  United  States, 
taking  in' as  it  does  the  children  of  the  native  born  and 
alien,  rich  and  poor,  cultured  and  unlettered,  has  been 
a  true  forum  of  democracy  from  which  has  come  an 
aristocracy  not  of  blood  or  wealth  but  of  intellect. 
Nor  should  the  work  done  by  private  and  parochial 
schools  be  minimized.  Hundreds  of  thousands  of  young 
Americans,  native  and  foreign-born  or  of  foreign-born 
parents  have  been  trained  in  good  citizenship  in  these 
schools.  The  spirit  and  influence  of  the  training  re- 
ceived in  our  public  and  private  schools  of  all  kinds  in 
obedience  to  law  and  respect  for  constituted  authority 
have  been  revealed  in  the  records  of  the  Great  War. 
To-day  the  schools  of  America  stand  as  a  bulwark 
against  the  untried  revolutionary  movements  that  are 
threatening  the  peaceful  development  of  the  govern- 
ment of  the  United  States. 


CHAPTER  VIII 
THE  GREAT  AMERICAN  STATESMEN 

Immortal  things  have  God  for  architect, 
And  men  are  but  the  granite  He  lays  down. 

John  Boyle  O'Reilly. 

When  one  lOoks  over  the  list  of  American  statesmen 
and  tries  to  select  the  one  who  has  had  the  greatest  in- 
fluence in  making  the  United  States  what  -it  is  to-day, 
he  immediately  sees  that  such  a  selection  is  impossible. 
No  one  man's  statement  of  principles  or  rules  of  pro- 
cedure can  be  said  to  be  the  Bible  of  Americanism. 
In  a  sense,  every  American  has  given  a  shaping  touch 
to  his  country's  ideal.  From  the  beginning,  even  be- 
fore the  Revolution,  there  were  marked  divergences  in 
political  principles,  which,  at  times,  threatened  to  dis- 
rupt the  new  United  States.  But  with  the  setting 
up  of  the  Constitution,  order  was  brought  into  being, 
because  of  the  possession  of  a  framework  of  funda- 
mental law  sufficiently  strong  and  sufficiently  elastic  to 
bear  the  strain  of  carrying  on  the  government. 

Though  each  great  American  who  engaged  in  the 
business  of  making  America  what  she  is  to-day  left  on 
the  country's  institutions  something  of  himself,  that 
something  was  not  altogether  the  result  of  his  personal 
opinions  or  of  his  individual  set  of  principles.  His 
work  has  remained  because  in  public  life  he  clearly  ex- 
pressed something  that  has  been  accepted  by  the 
greater  number  of  American  citizens  as  a  part  of  the 

ideal  of  government  or  policy.     In  other  words,  each 

153 


THE  GREAT  AMERICAN  STATESMEN      155 

leader  helped  to  crystallize  the  half-conscious  -ideals 
of  American  people  into  tangible  and  easily  under- 
stood doctrines  and  to  carry  them  into  general  prac- 
tice. 

On  the  shining  roll  of  honor  stand  the  names  of  the 
men  who  may  he  called  in  deed  and  truth  builders  of 
American  democracy:  George  Washington,  Benjamin 
Franklin,  Thomas  Jefferson,  Alexander  Hamilton, 
James  Madison,  John  Marshall,  James  Monroe,  John 
Quincy  Adams,  Andrew  Jackson,  Henry  Clay,  Daniel 
Webster,  and  Abraham  Lincoln.  Though  the  list 
might  be  extended,  it  could  not  be  reduced  by  the  re- 
moval of  even  one  of  these  names,  because  these  men 
abpve  all  others  have  left  easily  recognizable  marks  on 
the  government  of  the  United  States.  Other  men  — 
statesmen,  soldiers,  and  public  servants  —  will  be  long 
remembered  for  gallant  deeds  and  worthy  conduct,  but 
these  in  a  peculiar  way  stand  before  all  others,  because 
they  helped  to  make  clear  and  unquestionable  the  prin- 
ciples of  government  which  have  come  to  embody  the 
American  ideal. 

GEORGE    WASHINGTON 

George  Washington  may  truly  be  called  "  the  Father 
of  his  Country."  The  name  as  applied  to  him  is  no 
empty  title.  No  other  man  during  the  life  of  our 
nation  has  done  so  much  as  he  did,  in  so  many  fields, 
over  so  long  a  period  of  time.  The  eloquent  and  cour- 
ageous Patrick  Henry  rendered  great  service  for  de- 
mocracy by  molding  public  opinion  at  the  beginning  of 
the  national  period,  as  did  James  Otis  and  Samuel 
Adams;  Schuyler  and  Greene  were  valiant  generals,  who 
helped  to  carry  the  Revolution  to  a  victorious  finish; 
Franklin  labored  untiringly  in  foreign  courts  and  in  the 


156  AMERICAN  DEMOCRACY 

AmeKican  assemblies  of  freedom;  John  Marshall  ex- 
pounded the  Constitution  for  the  first  forty  years  of 
its  life,  convincing  men  that  it  would  work  in  actual 
practice;  Hamilton  used  his  gifts  of  mind  in  framing 
and  explaining  the  Constitution  and  setting  up  the 
financial  system  of  the  country.  Each  of  these  men 
was  a  leader  in  one  or  more  particular  lines,  but  George 
Washington  played  an  active  part  in  all  of  these  fields 
and  in  each  did  notable  work.  He  was  in  the  thick  of 
American  affairs  during  the  f'rench  and  Indian  war; 
as  commander-in-chief  of  the  Revolutionary  Army,  he 
proved  himself  to  be  a  great  military  leader;  with 
calmness  and  dignity,  he  presided  over  the  Constitu- 
tional Convention  and  held  the  balance  true;  as  the 
first  President  of  the  United  States,  he  performed  the 
delicate  task  of  setting  the  machinery  of  the  govern- 
ment in  motion ;  under  his  eye,  the  financial  credit  of 
the  country  was  established;  he  settled  the  policy  of 
our  foreign  relations  by  taking  a  new  and  original 
attitude  in  his  definition  and  practice  of  neutrality 
toward  foreign  powers  engaged  in  war  with  one  an- 
other; and  when  he  was  about  to  retire  from  office,  in 
a  wise  and  eloquent  appeal,  he  pointed  out  the  dangers 
of  the  future,  and  warned  the  young  republic  against 
"  permanent  alliances  "  that  might  hamper  the  develop- 
ment of  the  American  ideal  of  government. 

Washington  carried  out  every  duty  with  a  dignity 
and  tolerant  breadth  of  vision  that  has  become  a  part 
of  the  American  attitude  of  mind  and  rule  of  conduct. 
No  American  should  neglect  Washington's  Inaugural 
nor  his  Farewell  Address.  Both  set  forth  clearly  de- 
fined principles  and  sensible  warnings  applicable  to 
our  own  time.     In  the  Farewell  Address,  Washington 


THE  GREAT  AMERICAN  STATESMEN      157 

exalts  the  name  of  America;  urges  the  preservation 
of  the  Union  as  a  whole,  looks  forward  to  close  com- 
munication between  the  East  and  the  West  by  land 
and  water,  warns  against  "  overgrown  military  estab- 
lishments," which  he  regards  "  as  unauspicious  to  lib- 
erty"; urges  in  every  untried  extension  of  government 
"fair  and  full  experiment  ^^ -^  and  denounces  "mere 
speculation  "  in  such  cases  as  "  criminal." 

He  says  in  plain  and  famihar  language,  "  The  Basis 
of  our  political  system  is  the  right  of  the  people  to 
make  and  to  alter  their  constitutions  of  government.^* 
He  denounces  "  all  combinations  and  associations, 
under  whatsoever  plausible  character,  with  real  design 
to  direct,  control,  counteract,  or  awe  the  regular  delib- 
eration and  action  of  constitutional  authorities."  He 
urges  the  importance  of  "  institutions  for  the  general 
diffusion  of  knowledge,"  and  he  says  that  "  reason  and 
experience  both  forbid  us  to  expect  that  national  mo- 
rality can  prevail  in  exclusion  of  religious  principles." 
He  warns  the  young  republic  against  insidious  foreign 
influence  as  baneful  to  republican  government,  but  en- 
joins the  keeping  of  "  engagements  "  with  perfect  good 
faith. 

In  his  Farewell  Address  — "  These  counsels  of  an 
old  and  affectionate  friend  "  —  there  is  scarcely  a  word 
that  is  not  valuable  to  the  thinking  American  of  to-da3\ 
In  the  closing  paragraphs  he  urges  "  harmony  and 
liberal  intercourse"  with  all  nations,  "consulting  the 
natural  course  of  things.*'  Time  has  proved  that  many 
of  his  fears  were  unfounded,  that  some  of  the  policies 
recommended  by  him  have  outlived  their  day,  but  time 
has  also  proved  that,  after  all  these  years,  though  the 
American   ideal   has   become  enlarged    and   broadened. 


158  AMERICAN  DEMOCRACY 

its    fundamental    principles,    as    set   forth   by    George 
Washington,  remain  unchanged. 

BENJAMIN    FRANKLIN 

Benjamin  Franklin,  another  worker  in  many  fields, 
was  a  pioneer  American,  who  entered  the  struggle  for 


Benjamin  Franklin 

the  establishment  of  the  new  nation  at  the  very  first. 
He  drafted  the  rejected  Albany  Plan  of  Union  in  1764 ; 
he  was  one  of  the  committee  that  drew  up  the  Declara- 
tion of  Independence ;  he  was  our  foreign  representative 
during  the  Revolutionary  War,  and,  by  his  earnest 
efforts,  won  France  to  our  aid ;  he  helped  to  make  the 


THE  GREAT  AMERICAN  STATESMEN      159 

treaty  of  peace  that  closed  the  war ;  and,  in  his  extreme 
age,  he  sat  in  the  Constitutional  Convention,  where 
he  did  much  to  maintain  harmony  in  that  sometimes 
harshly  discordant  group  of  earnest  men.'  He  was  a 
believer  in  the  capability  of  the  people  to  carry  on  a 
government  and  urged  the  educational  value  of  the 
franchise  on  the  masses.  Franklin  left  the  impres- 
sion of  his  personal  character  on  American  institutions 
—  something  of  his  self-control,  good  humor,  modesty, 
and  pervasive  wit.  Above  all,  his  practical  common 
sense  and  native  shrewdness  have  gone  into  the  texture  of 
the  American  spirit.  Franklin  was  neither  eloquent 
nor  brilliant,  but  he  was  always  sane,  reasonable, 
sincere,  and  practical,  looking  on  life  from  the 
generous*  point  of  view  made  possible  by  a  keen  sense 
of  humor. 

^  THOMAS    JEFFERSON 

(Thomas  Jefferson,  the  author  of  the  Declaration  of 
Independence,  was  another  builder  of  the  American 
ideal.  The  great  document  that  is  the  best  exposition 
of  his  fundamental  beliefs  is  not  only  a  piece  of  sound 
political  wisdom,  but  its  wording  and  form  make  it  a 
notable  literary  production.  Though  a  man  of  wealth 
and  inherited  social  position,  he  was  opposed  to  rule 
by  a  class.;  He  felt  that  the  laws  of  one  generation 
should  not  impose  burdens  on  following  generations. 
Like  Samuel  Adams,  he  believed  in  the  intelligence, 
fairness,  and  generosity  of  the  people;  so  much  so 
that  he  was  called  all  manner  of  names  because  he  held 
"  leveling  "  views,  "  a  democratic  scribbler,"  being  one 
of  the  epithets  hurled  at  him.  When  the  Constitution 
began  to  operate  he  became  a  supporter  of  States 
Rights  and  upheld  the  doctrine  of  "  nullification  "  be- 


160  AMERICAN  DEMOCRACY 

cause  hp  fj^rcd  the  tyranny  of  a  strong  central  gov- 
ernment. ^  He  thought  that  the  best  government 
governs  the  least  and  that  the  world  is  too  much  con- 
trolled by  governmental  authority.  Into  the  famous 
Ordinance  for  the  government  of  the  Northwest  Terri- 
tory, he  wrote  a  clause  providing  for  religious  free- 
dom, another  for  the  encouragement  of  public  educa- 
tion, and  a  third  prohibiting  slavery  in  that  great 
public  area.  In  1805  he  negotiated  the  Louisiana  Pur- 
chase, by  which  thevTcrritory  of  the  United  States  was 
increased  one-third;  He  founded  the  University  of 
Virginia,  one  of  the  most  remarkable  institutions  in 
the  United  States.  Jefferson  led  the  group  that  op- 
posed the  policies  of  Hamilton ;  he  is  looked  upon  as 
the  founder  of  the  Democratic  party. , 

ALEXANDER    HAMILTON 

Alexander  Hamilton,  Jefferson's  political  opponent, 
was  in  many  respects  the  greatest  constructive  states- 
man that  America  has  produced.  He  was  one  of  the 
framers  of  the  Constitution  and  joint-author  with  Mad- 
ison of  the  Federalist  papers  which  even  Jefferson  — 
naturally  not  over-anxious  to  praise  Hamilton  —  pro- 
nounced the  best  commentary  on  the  principles  of  gov- 
ernment ever  written.  Hamilton  opposed  States 
Rights  and  the  rule  of  the  common  people  and  firmly 
upheld  a  strong  federal  government  to  be  controlled  by 
the  well-educated  and  the  wealthy.  He  had  strong  lean- 
ings toward  a  monarchial  form  of  government  and  if 
he  had  had  his  way,  Washington  would  have  been  sad- 
dled with  the  title,  "  His  Highness,  the  President  of  the 
United  States  and  Protector  of  the  Liberties  of  the 
Same." 


THE  GREAT  AMERICAN  STATESMEN     161 


But  Hamilton  made  up  for  what  the  democratically- 
minded  consider  the  error  of  his  ways  by  his  sound 
financial  policy  which  strengthened  the  central  govern- 
ment and  set  it  upon  a  firm  basis.  He  first  insisted 
on  the  prompt  payment  of  the  United  States'  debt  and 
then  proposed  that  the  Federal  Government  take  over 
the  debts  of  the  sepa- 
rate states.  As  soon 
as  this  was'  done,  the 
Federal  Government 
assumed  greater 
strength  and  force, 
because  the  American 
citizens  to  whom  the 
states  owed  debts 
were  eager  to  sup- 
port the  govern- 
ment that  proposed 
to  pay  them. 

Hamilton  also 
helped  to  establish  a 
great  National  Bank 
in  which  the  govern- 
ment was  a  sharehold- 
er and  director.  He 
claimed  that  the  pow- 
er to  establish  such  a 

bank  was  given  to  Congress  by  a  "  loose  "  construction 
of  the  famous  elastic  clause.  Thomas  Jefferson,  who 
was  in  Washington's  cabinet  with  Hamilton,  opposed 
Hamilton's  reading  of  the  clause  as  a  dangerous 
precedent,  saying  that  "  necessity  is  a  tyrant's  plea." 
Nevertheless,    Jefferson    at    a    later    date    was    com- 


James  Madison  • 

The  Father  of  the  Constitution. 
Author  of  the  "Journal  of  the  Con- 
stitution "  and  of  the  "  Federated 
Papers." 


162  AMERICAN  DEMOCRACY 

pelled  to  invoke  the  elasticity  of  the  same  clause  when 
he  negotiated  the  Louisiana  Purchase.  Hamilton 
not  only  established  a  strong  financial  system,  but  he  al- 
so helped  infant  industries  by  introducing  a  protective 
tariff.  As  may  well  be  imagined,  Hamilton  and  Jeffer- 
son were  not  an  "  harmonious  concert  of  powers  "  in 
Washington's  cabinet.  Doubtless,  the  first  President 
was  much  relieved  when  Jefferson  resigned  the  port- 
folio of  State. 

JAMES    MADISON 

James  Madison  of  Virginia,  the  fourth  President  of 
the  United  States,  is  not  so  attractive  and  spirited  a 
figure  as  either  Jefferson  or  Hamilton,  yet  his  services 
to  his  country  —  often  quiet  and  unpretentious  —  were 
of  tremendous  value.  In  intellectual  power,  Madison 
was  surpassed  by  no  other  President  before  or  since 
his  time.  He  was  not  a  mere  party  leader,  but  a  man 
of  large  view,  sympathetic  understanding,  and  inde- 
pendent mind.  His  secret  Journal  of  the  Constitution 
and  the  Federalist  papers,  showed  an  unselfish  devo- 
tion to  this  country  unsurpassed  by  that  of  any  other 
American  patriot. 

Madison  rightly  opposed  as  unconstitutional  the 
Alien  and  Sedition  laws  passed  by  the  Federalists  under 
John  Adams.  The  "  Alien  Act  "  empowered  the  Presi- 
dent to  remove  from  the  country  any  alien  whom  he 
considered  "  dangerous  to  the  peace  and  safety  of  the 
United  States."  The  "  Sedition  Act  "  provided  for  a 
fine  and  imprisonment  for  writing  or  publishing  any 
article  intended  to  bring  the  government  officials  into 
contempt  or  disrepute.  The  Constitution  expressly 
forbade  abridgment  of  the  freedom  of  speech  and  press. 


THE  GREAT  AMERICAN  STATESMEN     163 

Because  of  these  oppressive  laws,  the  famous  "  Ken- 
tucky Resolutions,"  declaring  that  a  state  had  the  right 
to  nullify  an  act  of  Congress,  were  adopted  under  the 
leadership  of  Madison  and  Jefferson.  Virginia  passed 
a  similar  protest  phrased  more  moderately.  The  Ken- 
tucky Resolutions  mark  the  beginning  of  the  nullifica- 
tion struggle. 

JOHN    MARSHALI. 

John  Marshall,  another  native  of  Virginia,  was  Chief 
Justice  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States  for 
the  thirty-four  years  from  1801  to  1836.  Naturally, 
his  decisions  had  more  influence  in  fixing  the  meanings 
of  the  Constitution  than  those  of  any  other  man  who 
has  sat  on  the  Supreme  Bench.  He  had  done  good 
work  before  he  became  Chief  Justice;  for  to  Marshall 
and  Madison,  more  than  to  any  others,  belongs  the  dis- 
tinction of  securing  the  adoption  of  the  Constitution 
by  the  Virginia  state  convention.  Marshall's  argu- 
ments in  reply  to  Patrick  Henry's  eloquently  expressed 
views  against  the  adoption  of  a  national  Constitution 
were  particularly  telling. 

During  Marshall's  long  term  as  Chief  Justice,  he 
upheld  the  Federalist  theorists,  who  believed  in  a  strong 
national  government  as  opposed  to  state  supremacy. 
He  dominated  the  courts  by  his  great  learning,  his 
masterful  power  of  analysis,  and  his  clearness  of  state- 
ment. He  secured  for  the  Supreme  Court  the  pro- 
found respect  with  which  it  is  still  regarded;  he  ex- 
pounded the  Constitution  so  as  to  make  clear  for  the 
first  time  the  nature  of  the  national  government;  and 
he  forecast  the  line  along  which  the  nation  was  to  pro- 
ceed, not  only  in  judicial  matters  but  in  material  de- 


164 


AMERICAN  DEMOCRACY 


velopmcnt.  He  placed  on  a  firm  footing  the  principle 
of  judicial  supremacy  over  the  laws  of  the  national 
legislature. 

Marshall's    contribution    to    international    law    was 
great,  although  that  feature  of  his  work  has  but  recently 

been  appreciated. 
His  famous  Dart- 
mouth Case  deci- 
sion, which  held  that 
the  Constitution  for- 
bade the  impairment 
of  contracts,  has  of 
late  been  seriously 
questioned,  as  has 
the  wisdom  and  jus- 
tice of  his  interpreta- 
tion that  the  Supreme 
Court  is  entirely  and 
clearly  superior  to 
the  Legislative  body. 
Whatever  may  be 
the  final  verdict  on 
such  questions,  John 
Marshall's  services 
in  helping  to  stabilize 
our  government  will 
make  him  remem- 
bered as'  one  of  the  great  builders  of  the  American  ideal. 


James  Monroe 

As  agent  for  JeflFerson  he  negoti- 
ated the  Louisiana  Purchase;  under 
the  influence  of  J.  Q.  Adams  he  pro- 
mulgated the  Monroe  Doctrine. 


JAMES    MONROE 


James  Monroe  of  Virginia  was  President  of  the 
United  States  from  1817  to  1825,  during  the  period  of 
political  harmony  known  as  the  "  Era  of  Good  Feeling." 
He  was  of  Jefferson's  party,  being  one  of  the  men  who 


THE  GREAT  AMERICAN  STATESxMEN     165 

negotiated  the  Louisiana  Purchase.  He  was  opposed 
by  no  candidate,  the  Federalist  party  having  committed 
unintentional  political  suicide  in  the  famous  Hartford 
Convention  of  1814,  where  some  of  its  leaders  tried  to 
put  local  industrial  interests  ahead  of  the  best  interests 
of  the  nation  at  large.  But  if  ]Monroe's  administration 
was  undisturbed  within,  it  was  troubled  from  without 
by  the  fear  of  the  intervention  of  European  nations  in 
American  affairs.  The  great  nations  of  Europe  which 
had  united  in  the  Quadruple  Alliance  were  about  to 
interfere  with  certain  South  American  colonies  that 
had  broken  away  from  Spain.  To  prevent  such  inter- 
ference, Monroe  made  a  declaration  in  his  message  to 
Congress  which  has  become  famous  as  the  "  Monroe 
Doctrine  "  of  history. 

The  "  doctrine  "  set  forth  that  thereafter  no  Euro- 
pean power  had  a  right  to  lay  hands  —  either  by  way 
of  interference,  or  by  way  of  colonization  —  on  any 
land  on  the  western  side  of  the  Atlantic.  In  other 
words,  the  United  States  assumed  the  role  of  big  brother 
to  the  rest  of  the  New  World  with  the  exception,  of 
course,  of  Canada  and  a  few  well-behaved  colonies  in 
the  West  Indies  and  South  America  which  were  under 
European  domination.  This  mere  expression  of  atti- 
tude on  the  part  of  the  United  States  has  ever  since 
Monroe's  time  acted  as  a  deterrent  on  European  aspi- 
rations for  new  colonies  in  America.  The  Monroe  Doc- 
trine is  Monroe's  great  contribution  to  the  American 
policy. 

JOHN    QUINCY    ADAMS 

John  Quincy  Adams,  of  Massachusetts,  who  probably 
was  responsible  for  the  promulgation  of  the  Monroe 
Doctrine,   was   Monroe's    Secretary   of   State.     He   is 


166  AMERICAN  DEMOCRACY 

usually  thought  of  as  a  disagreeable  combative  person- 
ality, because  he  was  independent  enough  to  break  over 
the  lines  of  political  party.  This  characteristic  was 
illustrated  strikingly  when  as  a  United  States  Senator 
during  Jefferson's  administration,  he  upheld  the  Louis- 
iana Purchase,  though  he  was  a  Federalist.  Again,  he 
voted  for  laws  that  laid  restrictions  on  New  England 
trade  and  so  brought  the  wrath  of  the  whole  Federalist 
party  about  his  ears. 

When  Adams  became  President,  he  took  up  the  ques- 
tion of  internal  improvements  at  national  expense. 
This  was  a  Federalist  policy  and  like  the  protective 
tariff,  one  of  the  "  burning  "  issues  involving  the  ques- 
tion of  a  loose  or  a  strict  construction  of  the  Constitu- 
tion. Adams's  party  held  that  the  elastic  clause  gave 
the  government  power,  among  other  things,  to  make 
internal  improvements  extending  from  one  state  to  an- 
other, to  impose  a  tariff  for  protection,  and  to  charter 
a  National  Bank  as  had  been  done  by  Hamilton. 
These  questions  were  made  the  issues  at  the  next  elec- 
tion and  the  Federalists,  with  Adams  as  their  leader, 
were  defeated. 

Adams,  unlike  other  ex-presidents,  re-entered  national 
politics  by  becoming  a  member  of  the  House  of  Repre- 
sentatives. Up  to  this  time  he  had  not  been  particu- 
larly interested  in  slavery,  but  when  the  Southern 
congressmen  succeeded  in  passing  the  "  gag  rule " 
which  provided  that  all  petitions  concerning  slavery 
should  be  "  laid  on  the  table  "  without  being  printed 
or  discussed,  Adams's  ire  was  aroused.  He  stoutly 
maintained  that  such  a  rule  cut  off  the  inalienable 
"  right  of  petition,"  long  a  traditional  right  of  Eng- 
lish-speaking people.     In  season  and  out,  he  kept  up 


THE  GREAT  AMERICAN  STATESMEN     167 

his  attack  until  he  had  aroused  the  country.     In  1844, 
the  gag  rule  was  abandoned. 

In  1836,  Adams  declared  in  Congress  that  if  ever 
the  slave  states  threatened  war,  the  national  government 
could  interfere  in  any  way  that  military  policy  might 
suggest.  Again  in  1842,  he  voiced  the  startling  prin- 
ciple that  in  case  of  armed  rebellion,  the  President,  as 
commander-in-chief  of  the  army,  had  power  to  order 
the  emancipation  of  slaves.  At  the  time  he  was  hooted 
at,  but  in  1863  Abraham  Lincoln  stood  firmly  upon 
this  principle  when  he  issued  the  Emancipation  Procla- 
mation. Adams  died  at  his  work  in  the  very  House  of 
Representatives  where  he  had  often  stood  alone  in  de- 
fense of  the  principles  of  democracy. 

ANDREW    JACKSON 

Andrew  Jackson  of  Tennessee,  President  of  the 
United  States  from  1829  to  1837,  unlike  the  presidents 
who  had  preceded  him,  was  a  man  of  humble  birth  and 
without  education  or  other  cultural  advantages.  Jef- 
ferson, Madison,  Monroe,  and  John  Quincy  Adams,  were 
all  university-bred,  scholar-statesmen,  members  of  the 
"  upper  "  classes.  Jackson  was  a  popular  hero  after 
the  battle  of  New  Orleans  because  of  his  record  in  the 
War  of  1812  and  as  an  Indian  fighter  in  Florida.  His 
election  marked  the  rise  of  the  "  common  "  people  to  a 
new  power,  and  was  made  possible  by  certain  constitu- 
tional changes  that  had  gradually  come  about  in  state 
governments,  among  which  were  the  removal  of  property 
qualifications,  direct  election  of  governors,  popular  elec- 
tion of  judges  in  the  courts,  and  the  removal  of  religious 
tests  for  suffrage.  Besides  these  political  changes,  a 
social  change  had  taken  place  favoring  greater  democ- 


168 


AMERICAN  DEMOCRACY 


racy,  and  demonstrating  that  the  people  were  at  last 
the  "  Sovereign  People."  Democracy  was  finding  its 
pbwer,  and  Jacksonian  democracy,  which  taught  that 
the  people  might  govern  as  much  as  they  pleased,  was 
shown  to  be  of  a  different  quality  from  Jeffersonian 
democracy,  which  taught  that  the  people  ought  to  be 

governed  as  little  as 
possible. 

Jackson  greatly  en- 
larged the  pernicious 
"  spoils  system  "  by 
placing  his  political 
adherents  in  all  fed- 
eral offices,  small  as 
well  as  large.  He  did 
this  on  the  seemingly 
sound  principle  that 
rotation  in  office  was 
salutary  for  democ- 
racy. He  may  have 
thought  he  was  im- 
proving public  serv- 
ice by  a  "  clean 
sweep."  He  could 
hardly  have  realized 
that  when  used  as  a 
method  of  paying  po- 
becomes    thoroughly 


Andrew  Jackson 

He    advanced     Popular    Government 
and  supported  the  Federal  Union 


litical    debts,    the    spoils    system 
vicious. 

But  if  Jackson  lacked  political  foresight  on  the  spoils 
system,  he  was  on  firm  ground  on  the  question  of  nullifi- 
cation. Since  he  had  opposed  the  high  tariff  of  1828, 
South  Carolina  expected  his  support  when  Hayne  made 
the  speech  which  brought  the  "  liiberty  and  Union  " 


THE  GREAT  AMERICAN  STATESMEN     169 

reply  from  Webster,  and  was  sorely  disappointed  when 
he  took  an  unalterable  stand  for  the  Union.  When 
South  Carolina  threatened  to  secede,  Jackson  met  the 
issue  squarely  and  made  ready  to  use  force.  He  broke 
up  the  national  bank,  for  which  he  has  been  severely 
blamed,  although  present  opinion  seems  to  incline 
toward  approval  of  Jackson's  policy.  Looking  at  his 
work  as  a  whole,  Andrew  Jackson  must  be  considered 
one  of  the  commanding  figures  in  American  History. 

HENRY    CLAY 

Henry  Clay  of  Kentucky  must  not  be  omitted  from 
this  enumeration  of  the  Builders  of  Democracy.  He 
was  a  signer  of  the  Treaty  of  Paris,  after  the  War  of 
1812.  He  used  his  great  influence  in  eradicating  Euro- 
pean control  from  American  countries,  thus  upholding 
the  Monroe  Doctrine  and  establishing  our  foreign 
policy.  This  service,  though  perhaps  his  greatest  per- 
manent contribution  to  the  American  ideal,  had  been 
obscured  by  his  work  as  peace-maker  between  the 
warring  camps  of  States  Rights  and  Union.  He  used 
all  of  the  power  of  his  splendid  personality  to  bring 
the  contending  forces  together  by  compromising  their 
differences  on  slavery  and  the  tariff.  He  thus  staved 
off  the  War  of  Secession  for  thirty  years.  If  Henry 
Clay  had  not  lived,  it  is  doubtful  whether  there  would 
be  a  United  States  of  America  as  we  know  it.  His  sin- 
cere "  I  would  rather  be  right  than  be  president  "  is  a 
true  reflection  of  his  character. 

DANIEL    WEBSTER 

Daniel  Webster's  name  invariably  brings  to  mind  the 
impressive  scene  in  the  United  States  Senate  when  that 


170 


AMERICAN  DEMOCRACY 


superb  orator  drew  hims'elf  together  and  delivered  his 
great  reply  to  Senator  Hayne's  speech  in  support  of 
nullification.  In  words  of  living  beauty,  ending  with 
the  matchless  peroration  which  concluded  with  the 
words,  "  Liberty  and  Union,  now  and  forever,  one  and 
inseparable,"  he  convinced  the  nation  that  lasting  unity 
was  essential  to  the  common  good.     Years  have  passed 

since  Webster's  day; 
the  War  of  Secession 
has  been  fought ;  for- 
tunately the  Union 
has  been  preserved. 
While  thousands  of 
influences  contributed 
to  this  happy  out- 
come, no  single  one 
was  so  great  in  its 
effect  as  that  golden 
speech  of  the  "  Ex- 
pounder of  the  Con- 
stitution," which 
clarified  the  ideals  of 
the  nation  on  this 
fundamental  q  u  e  s  - 
tion.  It  created  a 
strong  feeling  in  fa- 
vor of  the  Union. 
In  1850,  Webster  yielded  to  a  compromise  with  the 
South,  a  change  of  front  that  was  never  understood  and 
consequently  never  quite  forgiven.  It  is  possible  that 
he  was  angling  for  the  presidential  nomination,  but 
whatever  the  cause  of  his  yielding,  it  is  a  fact  that  his 
attitude  on  the  compromise  of  1850  probably  pushed 
back  the  War  of  Secession  for  ten  years  and  thus  con- 


Dantel  Webster 

His  great  work  was  to  make  strong 
the  feeling  for  union 


THE  GREAT  AMERICAN  STATESMEN      171 

tributed  to  the  preservation  of  the  Union  by  giving 
a  longer  time  for  sentiment  in  favor  of  a  united  nation 
to  become  more  thoroughly  crystallized. 

ABRAHAM    LINCOLN 

All  the  men  who  were  makers  of  America's  des- 
tiny up  to  Abraham  Lincoln's  time,  had  striven  man- 
fully, through  good  and  evil  report,  to  work  out  a  prac- 
tical form  of  government  based  on  sound  principles  that 
would  conserve  their  rights  to  all  men.  They  had 
wrought  to  so  carry  on  the  government  that  the  inter- 
ests of  all  the  people  might  be  served  well;  they  had 
engaged  in  political  struggles  in  the  confines  of  their 
own  country  and  they  had  striven  in  foreign  wars. 
There  had  been  days  of  trial  and  days  of  peace,  but 
they  never  had  felt  the  framework  of  the  government 
giving  way  beneath  their  feet. 

To  Abraham  Lincoln  was  reserved  the  supreme  task 
of  upholding  the  principles  upon  which  the  United 
States  of  America  was  founded  while  a  great  and  ter- 
rific civil  war  was  in  progress.  Lincoln  saw  each  side 
of  the  controversy  with  understanding  sympathy,  but 
his  decision  fell  on  the  side  which  has  preserved  the 
Union.  Long  before  he  had  said  *'  This  govern- 
ment cannot  exist,  half  slave  and  half  free  " ;  yet  he  had 
hoped  that  he  would  not  be  forced  to  the  extreme  meas- 
ure of  emancipating  the  slaves.  But  when  he  became 
convinced  that  in  order  to  save  the  Union  he  must  crush 
slavery,  he  did  not  shrink  from  what  he  conceived  to 
be  his  duty. 

On  the  field  at  Gettysburg,  in  the  most  lucid  Eng- 
lish passage  that  America  can  boast,  he  uttered  those 
words  that  have  become  the  accepted  formula  of  Amer- 
ican democracy.     "  Four  score  and  seven  years  ago  " 


172  AMERICAN  DEMOCRACY 

runs  the  Gettysburg  address  which  ends  with  the  high 
resolution,  "  that  government  of  the  people,  for  the  peo- 
ple, and  by  the  people  shall  not  perish  from  the  earth." 
Of  all  the  great  American  statesmen  Abraham  Lincoln 
comes  nearest  to  the  universal  heart.  His  words  are  a. 
text  which  contain  the  best  expression  of  the  American 
Ideal. 

When  the  War  of  Secession  was  over,  no  treaty  was 
deemed  necessary.  Lee's  surrender  closed  the  terrible 
struggle  to  preserve  an  indissoluble  Union.  The  vic- 
torious North  did  not  demand  a  punitive  peace;  na 
reparation,  no  indemnities  were  exacted;  no  bloodshed 
by  legal  execution  was  made  to  pay  the  price  of  the 
civil  strife.  The  question  of  the  Union  was  settled 
forever ;  States  Rights  bowed  to  Federal  Power ;  "  other 
persons  "  ceased  to  be  slaves.  The  obscure  lines  of  the 
Constitution  had  been  interpreted,  not  by  the  Supreme 
Bench,  but  by  the  deciding  force  of  a  sanguinary  con- 
flict. The  Constitution  no  longer  admitted  of  possible 
misinterpretation ;  its  commentaries  were  complete.  A 
new  order  of  things  may  arise  which  will  necessitate  a 
change  in  the  instrument  of  our  government,  but  never 
again  will  it  be  necessary  to  go  through  the  terrors  of 
civil  war  to  decide  what  the  lines  of  the  Constitution 
mean. 

THE    MIRACLE    OF    DEMOCRACY 

In  this  brief  survey  of  some  of  the  builders  of 
the  American  ideal,  there  is  revealed  a  body  of  in- 
spiring truth.  The  men  who  have  had  the  greatest 
influence  in  shaping  the  American  ideal  of  govern- 
ment, came,  as  it  were,  from  the  seven  corners  of 
the  globe,  from  no  one  station  in  life,  from  no  one 
party.     Virginia  gave  more  than  her  share  —  Wash- 


THE  GREAT  AMERICAN  STATESMEN      173 

ington,  Jefferson,  Madison,  Marshall,  and  Monroe; 
Massachusetts  gave  John  Quincy  Adams ;  Pennsyl- 
vania, Franklin ;  New  York  is  proud  of  her  adopted  son, 
Hamilton;  Tennessee  of  the  sturdy  commoner,  Andrew 
Jackson;  Kentucky,  the  border  state,  was  a  fitting 
home  for  the  peacemaker.  Clay;  granite-ribbed  New 
Hampshire  produced  Webster;  and  the  great  Lincoln 
hailed  from  Illinois. 

Fortune  was  careless  as  to  the  early  advantages  of 
these  men.  Washington,  a  landed  gentleman,  was  the 
servant  of  all ;  Thomas  Jefferson,  the  owner  of  a  patri- 
archal estate,  was  a  most  ardent  believer  in  the  men 
of  the  people;  Hamilton,  the  Federalist,  thrown  on  his 
own  resources  at  thirteen,  set  up  our  sound  financial 
system,  and  with  Madison,  an  Anti-Federalist,  wrote 
the  great  state  papers  that  helped  to  make  the  Con- 
stitution the  law  of  the  nation;  Andrew  Jackson,  dem- 
ocratic in  principles  and  a  tyrant  in  actions,  stood  the 
unabashed  equal  of  any  potentate;  Lincoln,  the  son  of 
poverty  and  toil,  saved  the  Union  and  freed  the  slaves. 
These  men  are  the  product  of  American  democracy. 

Nor  can  any  one  set  of  political  theories  account  for 
the  individual  legacy  left  to  America  by  these  builders 
of  democracy.  Jefferson,  a  Republican-Democrat,  and 
a  believer  in  States  Rights,  dealt  the  first  blow  at  slav- 
ery; Jackson,  a  Democrat,  was  the  champion  of  the 
LTnion  against  nullification ;  Lincoln,  a  Republican, 
"  with  malice  toward  none,"  understood  the  South  even 
while  he  carried  on  the  war  against  her.  What  these 
men  wrought  that  was  good  for  the  country  has  ad- 
hered; what  was  unworthy  has  fallen  away  or  been 
shaken  off  by  the  winnowing  of  time.  We  remember 
them  only  for  their  part  in  making  the  American  Ideal. 


CHAPTER  IX 

AUTHORS  WHO  HELPED  TO  MAKE  THE 
AMERICAN     IDEAL 

The  ideal  of  America  —  the  ideal  of  a  "  well-regulated  liberty," 
ihe  ideal  of  brotherhood,  by  which  every  man  is  our  neighbor  — 
is  a  noble  one.  The  future  of  American  literature  must  depend 
largely  upon  the  faithfulness  of  the  American  people  to  their 
national  ideals.  H.  S.  Pancoast. 

Americans  have  always  been  a  reading  people.  The 
printed  word  whether  in  the  transitory  form  of  tracts 
or  pamphlets  or  periodicals,  or  in  the  more  permanent 
form  of  books,  has,  therefore,  exerted  a  potent  influ- 
ence upon  American  life  and  character. 

COLONIAL    AND    REVOLUTIONARY    PERIODS 

American  literature  naturally  divides  itself  into 
periods  corresponding  with  the  historical  development 
of  the  country.  The  writings  of  the  colonial  period 
which  consisted  largely  of  historical  records,  letters  of 
love  and  friendship,  diaries  and  journals,  elegiac  poems, 
and  chronicles  of  human  experience  were  nearly  all 
written  in  a  religious  tone,  especially  when  the  writers 
were  Puritans.  The  contrast  between  the  atmosphere 
of  New  England  and  Virginia  may  be  seen  by  compar- 
ing the  sober,  austere,  and  gloomy  writings  of  the 
Puritan,  William  Bradford,  with  the  gay,  entertaining, 
and  hopeful  work  of  the  Cavalier,  William  Byrd  of 

Virginia. 

174 


176  AMERICAN  DEMOCRACY 

As  nearly  all  of  the  early  political  leaders  in  Amer- 
ica were  lawyers,  oratory  was  the  great  moulding  force 
of  American  life  from  the  days  of  the  Stamp  Act  to  the 
War  of  Secession.  During  that  time,  when  questions 
of  state  were  debated  by  the  representatives  of  the  peo- 
ple in  open  assembly,  by  farmers  and  townsfolk  on  the 
village  green,  and  by  learned  and  unlearned  alike,  there 
was  developed  a  body  of  intelligent  citizens  devoted  to 
free  government.  All  Americans  are  familiar  with  cer- 
tain history-making  orations.  James  Otis's  speech  con- 
demning the  Writs  of  Assistance,  in  which  John  Adams 
said  American  independence  was  born,  is  one  of  the 
great  early  American  orations.  Patrick  Henry's 
"  Liberty  or  Death "  speech  was  another.  George 
Washington's  "  Farewell  Address  "  has  proved  a  text- 
book for  Americans.  Andrew  Jackson's  Second  Inau- 
gural stands  the  wear  of  time  with  Daniel  Webster's 
immortal  "  Reply  to  Hayne."  The  oration  most  widely 
known  is  the  briefest  and  most  perfect  of  them  all,  the 
"  Gettysburg  Address  "  of  Abraham  Lincoln. 

The  most  notable  writer  of  Revolutionary  days  was 
Thomas  Jefferson.  He  has  left  his  "  Autobiography  and 
Letters,"  besides  the  "  Declaration  of  Independence." 
In  1774  he  wrote  a  "  Summary  View  of  the  Writers  of 
America,"  an  exposition  of  America's  position,  so  con- 
vincing and  so  well  stated  that  Edmund  Burke,  because 
of  it,  was  inspired  to  write  his  great  oration  "  On  Con- 
ciliation with  America."  In  that  master  pronounce- 
ment of  Burke's  he  says  of  the  American  colonists:  "  In 
no  country  in  the  world  is  the  law  so  general  a  study  — 
all  who  rpad  —  and  most  do  read  —  endeavor  to  obtain 
some  smattering  of  that  science.  I  have  been  told  by 
eminent  booksellers  that  in  no  branch  of  business,  after 


AMERICAN  AUTHORS  177 

tracts   of   popular   devotion,   were   so   many  books   as 
hose  of  law  exported  to  the  plantations." 

Much  of  the  Revolutionary  War  writing  was  in  the 
form  of  doggerel  ballads ;  every  event  was  sung  in  verse 
and  eagerly  devoured  by  ardent  partisans.  Moore's 
"  Songs  and  Ballads  of  the  American  Revolution  "  and 
Sergeant's  "  Loyalist  Poetry  of  the  Revolution  "  con- 
tain much  interesting  material  showing  contrasting 
points  of  view. 

Benjamin  Franklin  left  as  a  literary  legacy  his  "  Au- 
tobiography "  and  "  Poor  Richard's  Almanack." 
Franklin  was  practical  rather  than  aesthetic  and  his 
work  helped  to  form  the  American  ideal  which  is  a  satis- 
factory combination  of  the  practical  and  the  idealistic. 
Nor  must  the  "  Federalist  Papers  "  of  Hamilton  and 
Madison  be  forgotten.  Those  essays,  out  of  all  the 
thousands  of  pamphlets  written  at  the  time  of  "  the 
tumult  of  the  truth  "  caused  by  the  discussion  of  the 
ratification  of  the  Constitution,  are  the  only  ones  that 
have  lived.  They  have  been  remembered  because  they 
are  great  literature  as  well  as  sound  constitutional  law. 

None  of  the  orators  and  political  writers  of  the 
Revolutionary  period  ever  dreamed  that  what  they  said 
and  wrote  would  go  down  as  American  literature ;  they 
wrote  out  of  the  fullness  of  their  convictions  —  to  urge 
to  action,  to  persuade,  to  convince,  to  secure  for  them- 
selves and  their  fellow  colonials  an  unfettered  chance 
to  forward  and  control  their  own  interests.  But 
often  their  words  caught  the  fire  of  a  great  ideal  and 
they,  being  men  of  learning  and  taste,  wrote  in  forms 
so  fitting  to  the  subject  that  their  works  have  become 
part    of    America's    permanent    literary    inheritance. 


178  AMERICAN  DEMOCRACY 

BUILDERS    OF    THE    AMERICAN    IDEAL 

Among  the  makers  of  distinctly  American  literature 
may  be  placed  the  names  of  Bryant,  Irving,  Cooper, 
Mark  Twain,  Longfellow,  Whittier,  Hawthorne,  Lowell, 
Holmes,  Emerson,  Walt  Whitman,  and  Lanier.  All  of 
these  writers  may  fairly  be  said  to  have  laid  moulding 
hands  upon  the  American  ideal.  Edgar  Allan  Poe  is 
here  omitted  because,  though  perhaps  America's  great- 
est musician  in  words,  his  work,  with  negligible  excep- 
tions, lacks  the  moral  significance  which  marks  the  work 
of  the  great  American  poets. 

THE    NEW    YORK    WRITERS 

William  Cullen  Bryant  (1794-1878)  was  a  Puritan 
in  his  poetry.  He  was  intensely  American  always  and 
his  work  profoundly  influenced  our  national  life  in  its 
early  days.  Many  of  his  poems  reflect  his  sincere  love 
of  country  and  of  her  spirit  of  freedom;  much  of  his 
poetry  is  religious  and  frankly  didactic,  as  he  intended 
it  to  be.  "  Thanatopsis  "  with  its  "  So  live  that  when 
thy  summons  comes,"  and  "  To  a  Waterfowl,"  have  been 
the  inspiration  and  the  comfort  of  thousands  of  Amer- 
icans; the  "Forest  Hymn,"  "The  Prairie,"  "To  a 
Fringed  Gentian,"  "  The  Song  of  Marion's  Men," 
"  Evening  Wind  "  and  "  Robert  of  Lincoln,"  all  speak 
of  the  land  of  America.  His  poem,  "  The  Antiquity  of 
Freedom,"  voices  in  a  poet's  words  what  w^e  believe 
concerning  the  right  of  a  man  to  life,  liberty,  and  the 
pursuit  of  happiness.  Bryant  has  a  forceful  message 
to  all  Americans. 

The  first  American  to  receive  notice  in  Europe  was 
Washington    Irving    (178S-1859).     Through   Irving, 


AMERICAN  AUTHORS  179 

America  entered  into  the  splendid  fellowship  of  contem- 
porary English  literature.  Irving's  work  was  read 
with  delight  by  Englishmen  in  the  day  of  Byron  and 
Scott.  Moreover,  Irving  brought  back  from  his  so- 
journ in  England  and  Spain  something  of  foreign 
culture  which  helped  the  new  republic  to  feel  at  home 
in  Europe.  Irving  has  endeared  the  Hudson  River  to 
all  Americans  by  his  "  Legend  of  Sleepy  Hollow  "  and 
"  Rip  Van  Winkle."  He  made  Americans  know  rural 
England  in  "  Bracebridge  Hall "  and  "  Tales  of  a 
Traveller."  Nor  did  he  confine  himself  to  literary  sub- 
jects. He  wrote  a  biography  of  George  Washington, 
long  considered  the  standard  life  of  the  first  President 
of  the  United  States.  In  the  genial  temper  of  his  writ- 
ing, Irving  expressed  the  trait  of  kindliness,  which  has 
been  and  still  remains  a  national  characteristic. 

James  Fenimore  Cooper  ((1789-1851)  told  his  tales 
freely,  abundantly,  joyously,  showing  in  the  very  prod- 
igality of  his  powers,  a  certain  American  generosity  of 
spirit.  He  wrote  "  The  Spy,"  and  the  great  series  of 
Leather  Stocking  Tales.  Though  Cooper  idealized  the 
Indian,  he  made  him  real  and  substantial.  He  was 
true  to  human  nature  and  showed  a  fine  and  just  appre- 
ciation of  upstanding  manhood  in  the  unmistakable 
courage  and  courtesy  of  all  his  characters.  His  books 
are  wholesome ;  they  are  filled  with  the  smell  of  the 
pines,  the  crackle  of  burning  brush,  the  ripple  of  the 
waters  of  river  and  lake,  and  the  story  of  the  brave 
deeds  of  hardy  men  and  gentle,  though  rather  colorless, 
women.  The  real  American  has  something  of  the 
rugged  courage  and  innate  courtesy  of  Cooper's  crea- 
tions. 

The  days  of  strenuous  conflict  preceding  the  War  of 


180  AMERICAN  DEMOCRACY 

Secession  produced  little  enduring  literature ;  "  Uncle 
Tom's  Cabin "  alone  remains  to  mark  that  troubled 
time. 

NEW    ENGLAND    WRITERS 

Henry  Wadsworth  Longfellow  (180T-1882)  wrought 
consistently  for  America  during  a  long  life,  helping  in 
his  own  way  to  build  the  American  ideal.  He  visited 
Europe  and  brought  back  to  us  the  culture  of  the  older 
nations,  the  poetry  and  lore  of  the  Scandinavian  coun- 
tries, of  Germany,  and  of  Spain.  He  helped  to  make 
America  a  little  less  provincial  and  thus  brought  closer 
the  time  of  a  real  "  Federation  of  the  World." 

Longfellow's  subjects  were  largely  American;  his 
"Evangeline,"  "Hiawatha,"  "Tales  of  a  Wayside 
Inn,"  with  its  "  Paul  Revcre's  Ride,"  his  "  Courtship  of 
Miles  Standish,"  all  these  have  helped  to  make  Amer- 
ica realize  herself.  It  is  said  that  "  The  Courtship  of 
]\Iiles  Standish "  has  awakened  more  interest  in  the 
Pilgrims  than  all  the  histories  that  have  been  written 
on  the  subject.  Longfellow,  perhaps  more  than  any 
other  poet,  has  placed  his  mark  on  American  life.  He 
wrote  not  for  a  select  few  but  for  all  his  countrymen. 
He  remains  the  household  poet,  the  poet  of  the  young. 
"The  Ladder  of  St.  Augustine,"  "The  Builders," 
"  Excelsior,"  "  Morituri  Salutamus,"  with  its  splendid 
closing  lines,  march  sturdily,  though  not,  perhaps,  as 
captains  of  the  line,  with  "  Ulysses,"  "  Childe  Roland 
to  the  Dark  Tower  Came,"  "  Say  not  the  Struggle 
Naught  Availeth !  "  and  the  songs  of  faith  and  courage 
of  other  poets. 

It  is  recorded  that  the  sad  heart  of  Lincoln  found 
the  relief  of  tears  on  reading  the  lines  beginning  — 
"  Thou  too  sail  on,  oh  ship  of  state,"  which  Longfellow 


AMERICAN  AUTHORS  181 

had  written  in  1840.  In  1843  Longfellow  voiced  his 
view  of  slavery  in  "  The  Witness  "  and  in  the  prophetic 
"  Warning."     When  the  War  came,  he  could  not  sing. 

The  cause  of  abolition  found  one  ardent  advocate 
among  American  writers  in  the  Quaker  poet,  John 
Greenleaf  Whittier.  Whittier's  poems,  dealing  with 
slavery,  began  in  1833  and  continued  until  the  close  of 
the  War  of  Secession.  They  form  a  running  commen- 
tary on  the  events  of  that  time  and  are  written  wuth  a 
fiery  eloquence  of  which  the  reader  of  "  Maud  Muller  " 
and  "  Snowbound  "  would  scarcely  suspect  Whittier  ca- 
pable. No  American  can  afford  to  neglect  this  poetic 
record  of  a  patriot's  feelings  as  aroused  by  national 
events.  They  are  the  expression  of  the  ideals  of  justice 
on  which  our  country  w^as  founded.  Whittier  wrote 
"  Ichabod,"  a  poem  of  stern  rebuke  to  Daniel  Webster 
for  upholding  the  Compromise  of  1850.  Thirty  years 
later  in  "  The  Lost  Occasion,"  the  poet  expressed  re- 
gret that  Webster  had  not  lived  to  make  his  last  days 
glorious  in  defense  of  the  Union.  Whittier's  poetry  is 
beautiful  and  inspiring  yet  always  wholesome. 

Ralph  Waldo  Emerson  (1803-1882),  poet  and  essay- 
ist, has  left  his  mark  on  the  American  ideal.  Much  of 
his  work  is  distinctly  American.  "  The  American 
Scholar,"  called  by  Holmes  "  our  intellectual  Declara- 
tion of  Independence,"  is  a  plea  for  a  breaking  away 
from  the  traditional  European  models  and  standing  on 
our  own  feet  as  the  freemen  of  a  new  world.  His 
"  Sclf-Rcliance  "  calls  on  the  young  American  to  hoe 
his  own  row  in  life.  He  exalted  sturdy  independence 
of  the  individual.  The  philosophy  of  life  set  forth 
in  Emerson's  prose  has  made  America  known  the  world 
over.  His  poetry,  though  not  so  great  in  bulk  as  his 
prose,  is  fine  and  beautiful.     The  familiar  lines  from 


182  AMERICAN  DEMOCRACY 

"  Concord  Hymn,"  "  Here  once  the  embattled  farmers 
stood  and  fired  the  shot  heard,  round  the  world,"  give 
the  history  and  outcome  of  the  American  Revolution. 
Oliver  Wendell  Holmes  (1809-1894)  impresses  one 
as  a  plain  get-at-able  American,  a  man  of  affairs,  a 
family  physican,  a  hail-fellow-well-met,  and,  at  the 
same  time,  a  poet  of  no  mean  ability.  He  is  never  too 
learned  to  be  understood,  never  so  much  in  earnest  as 
to  make  one  uncomfortable.  He  wrote  on  many  dis- 
tinctly American  subjects,  dealing  with  events  in  our 
history  and  occurrences  of  every-day  life.  He  was 
genial  and  yet  earnest.  His  "  Chambered  Nautilis  " 
touches  a  high  mark  in  American  literature.  Holmes 
could  be  fiery  with  indignation  as  his  outburst  at  the 
propose  destruction  of  the  gallant  war-ship  —  the 
Constitution —  shows.  Of  Holmes'  poems,  "  The  Last 
Leaf  "  was  Lincoln's  favorite. 

James  Russell  Lowell  (1819-1891),  poet,  essayist, 
and  diplomat,  was  perhaps,  the  most  consciously 
"  American  "  of  American  writers.  He  was  a  teacher 
of  democracy;  he  held  the  American  ideal  of  jus- 
tice and  fair  play;  he  believed  in  the  dignity  and 
sincerity  of  American  scholarship.  He  helped  to  found 
and  firmly  establish  the  Atlantic  Monthly.  He  was 
no  calm  on-looker  at  the  slavery  struggle,  nor 
at  the  obvious  injustice  of  the  Mexican  War.  "  The 
Biglow  Papers,"  America's  best  political  satire,  written 
in  Yankee  doggerel,  criticises  the  aims  of  the  war. 
"  The  Present  Crisis  "  contains  the  ideals  of  all  free- 
dom-loving men.  Lowell's  best-known  poem,  "  The  Vis- 
ion of  Sir  Launfal,"  teaches  the  brotherhood  of  men  in 
a  simple  and  beautiful  way.  "The  Commemoration 
Ode  "  contains  two  great  passages,  the  tribute  to  Lin- 
coln, and  the  closing  invocation,  which  begins: 


AMERICAN  AUTHORS  183 

"  O  Beautiful !  my  Country !  ours  once  more !  " 
Nathaniel  Hawthorne  (1804-1864)  wrote  of  the 
America  of  the  seventeenth  century.  "  The  House  of 
the  Seven  Gables,"  "  Twice  Told  Tales,"  "  Mosses  from 
an  old  Manse,"  "The  Scarlet  Letter,"  and  "The 
Blithedale  Romance "  are  all  on  American  subjects. 
Though  in  much  of  his  work,  Hawthorne  writes  of  the 
stern  and  gloomy  Puritan,  the  tone  is  generally  cheer- 
ful, optimistic,  and  inspiring.  His  "  Great  Stone 
Face  "  has  had  a  very  real  influence  on  the  lives  of  many 
American  boys  and  girls. 

MARK    TWAIN,    WALT    WHITMAN    AND    SIDNEY    LANIER 

Samuel  L.  Clemens  (1855-1910),  America's  l^eloved 
"  Mark  Twain,"  is  more  than  a  humorist.  A  hater  of 
sham  and  hypocrisy,  he  sought  every  opportunity  to 
strip  it  of  its  robes  of  pretence.  His  writings  dis- 
tinctly reflect  American  life,  especially  the  more  rugged 
phases  of  it.  His  wit,  though  penetrating,  is  kindly. 
He  uses  ridicule  without  showing  bitterness.  Mark 
Twain  stood  for  simple,  open  manhood;  he  hated  pre- 
tended worth  even  when  it  was  buttressed  by  wealth  and 
power.  By  many  Mark  Twain  is  considered  our  most 
distinctly  American  literary  product. 

Walt  Whitman  (1819-1892),  primitive,  and  self- 
assertive,  is  the  uncouth  laureate  of  democracy.  Con- 
troversy rages  as  to  whether  his  was  the  poetic  gift, 
whether  he  wrote  merely  for  an  age  or  for  all  time. 
It  is  doubtful  whether  he  will  ever  be  read  by  a  large 
audience;  his  work  is  not  read  by  many;  but  he  did 
express  a  lasting  conception  of  true  democracy  —  an 
ideal  that  is  like  a  strong  wind  blowing  off  the  grassy 
prairies.  He  stands  for  brotherhood,  for  the  simple, 
unafraid  dignity  of  man  as  he  is  created  by  God,  en- 


184  AMERICAN  DEMOCRACY 

dowed  with  what  God  has  given  him,  whether  strong 
or  weak,  gifted  or  dull.  Whitman  preached  the  gospel 
of  the  essential  worth  of  each  man  as  he  is,  strong  at 
his  own  task  and  conscious  of  his  worth,  in  his  own 
place  and  in  his  own  way  doing  his  share  for  the  great 
democracy. 

All  Americans  read  and  know  Whitman's  "  Oh 
Captain,  My  Captain,"  "  Pioneers,  Oh  Pioneers ! " 
"I  hear  America  Singing,"  and  "The  Prayer  of  Co- 
lumbus." The  best  expression  of  his  idea  of  democracy 
is  in  "  Thou  Mother  of  an  Equal  Brood,"  which,  though 
overboastful,  is  prophetic  and  exalted.  Of  Whitman's 
work  it  may  be  said  that,  like  the  work  of  every  other 
builder  of  democracy,  what  is  worthless  will  drop  off, 
what  is  worth  while  will  pass  into  the  general  conception 
of  the  national  ideal. 

Sidney  Lanier  (1842-1881)  was  born  in  the  South; 
fought  in  the  Confederate  army  during  the  War  of 
Secession;  spent  time  in  a  military  prison;  became  first 
flutist  in  a  Baltimore  orchestra;  was  a  lecturer  on 
literary  subjects  at  Johns  Hopkins;  and,  after  a  vain 
struggle  against  ill  health,  died  at  the  age  of  thirty- 
nine.  Lanier,  though  not  well  known  even  to  Amer- 
icans, is  one  of  America's  purest  and  sweetest  singers, 
a  master  of  music  who  through  toil  and  pain,  gave 
forth  poetry  rare  in  its  beauty  of  thought  and  form. 

Lanier's  poetry,  like  Poe's,  was  wrung  from  his  soul, 
but  unlike  Poe's,  it  was  not  distorted  in  thought  and 
feeling  by  passion  and  despair.  He  never  forgot  the 
moral  significance  of  art ;  in  his  mind  the  right  alone 
could  be  beautiful.  In  his  work  is  expressed  the  rare 
combination  of  rigid  devotion  to  duty  and  the  joyous 
delight  in  the  color  and  beauty  of  life  and  the  world 
about    him.     In    Lanier's    poetry    will    be    found    no 


AxMERICAN  AUTHORS  185 

trace  of  the  rancor  of  the  war  in  which  he  fought  on 
the  losing  side.  His  "  Centennial  Cantata,"  written  in 
celebration  of  the  birth  of  American  Independence,  sets 
forth  what  is  perhaps  the  best  statement  of  the  Amer- 
ican ideal  of  progress  toward  democracy  that  has  ever 
been  put  into  words. 

MORE    RECENT    WRITERS 

This  list  of  American  writers  is  by  no  means  com- 
plete ;  there  are  names  not  mentioned  here  which  will 
not  be  forgotten.  There  are  chroniclers  and  singers 
of  the  South  —  George  Cable,  Thomas  Nelson  Page, 
and  Father  Ryan ;  singers  of  the  middle  West  — 
Riley,  Hamlin  Garland,  and  Booth  Tarkington ;  of  the 
far  West  —  Joaquin  Miller,  Helen  Hunt  Jackson,  Bret 
Harte,  and  Frank  Norris;  and  many  others,  name 
crowding  on  name,  not  all  shining  with  equal  luster, 
but  all  representing  some  vital  aspect  of  American  life 
and  thought. 

THE    HISTORIANS 

In  a  study  of  American  writers  who  helped  to  build 
the  American  idea,  the  influence  of  American  historians 
must  not  be  forgotten.  Prescott,  Motley,  Parkman, 
Bancroft,  John  Fiske,  McMaster,  and  the  more  recent 
historians  have  done  signal  service  in  helping  to  develop 
and  give  permanence  to  the  American  ideal.  Even 
when  the  subjects  were  not  strictly  national,  when  they 
have  been  concerned  with  the  chronicles  of  other  peo- 
ples, they  have  expressed  the  American  point  of  view 
and  thus  have  helped  the  forward  march  of  government 
by  the  people.  No  one  who  seeks  to  find  the  true 
meaning  of  America  will  fail  to  search  the  pages  of 
the  histories  written  by  Americans. 


186  AMERICAN  DEMOCRACY 

INFLUENCE    ON    NATIONAL    THOUGHT 

The  possession  of  these  American  writers  —  our  very 
own  —  gives  Americans  a  place  in  the  world  of  thought 
and  feeling.  The  lives  and.  works  of  these  men  have 
illuminated  with  a  warm  radiance  the  spots  where  they 
have  lived  and  the  places  where  they  have  laid  the  scenes 
of  their  songs  and  stories.  They  have  been  our  real 
teachers  of  geography  and  history;  without  their  aid 
we  could  not  see  the  living  map  of  our  country  nor 
the  animated  chronicle  of  our  days.  We  know  places, 
towns,  and  cities,  and  rivers,  and  mountains.  North 
and  South,  East  and  West,  because  they  have  been 
made  familiar  by  the  writings  of  Americans. 

Longfellow  has  made  Cambridge,  the  Craigie  House, 
Harvard  College,  the  village  of  Grand  Pre,  and  the 
Savannahs  of  Louisiana,  visible  and  real  to  us;  Whit- 
tier  suggests  Fredericksburg,  the  Rocks  of  Rivermouth, 
Marblehead,  and  New  England  country  life  in  summer 
loveliness  as  well  as  when  "  Snow  Bound  " ;  Irving  has 
made  the  Hudson  country,  our  country,  as  he  has 
brought  Westminster  Abbey,  Abbotsford,  and  Strat- 
ford-on-Avon  to  America's  doors.  This  suggestion 
might  be  continued  to  Bret  Harte  and  the  Western 
camps,  to  Hamlin  Garland  and  the  life  of  the  prairie 
farm,  to  George  Cable  and  old  New  Orleans,  to  Lanier 
and  the  Southern  marshes  of  Glynn.  The  knowledge 
of  these  men  and  their  works  gives  to  our  own  country 
form  and  place  and  extent  and  reality,  makes  us  aware 
of  ourselves,  and  of  our  nation's  manifest  destiny.  For 
we  have  climbed  with  the  "  youth  who  bore  'mid  snow 
and  ice,"  the  banner  of  inspiration ;  we  have  held  with 
Lowell  "  the  Heritage  "  which  an}^  man  might  wish  to 
hold  in  fee;  we  have  pursued  the  ''shapes  that  flit 
before"  with  Whittier;  we  have  hastened  downward  to 


AMERICAN  AUTHORS  187 

the  plains  where  duty  calls  with  Lanier;  and,  though 
we  lingered  with  poor  Poe  in  the  "  Ghoul-haunted  Wood- 
land of  Wier,"  it  was  for  the  sake  of  the  magic  he 
made  and  not  in  doubt  and  black  despair. 

America  has  up  to  the  present  time  reflected,  and 
at  the  same  time  in  a  measure  created,  the  healthfulness, 
sanity,  moral  rectitude,  and  spiritual  exaltation  of  her 
writers,  singers,  story-tellers,  chroniclers,  and  commen- 
tators. The  future  of  American  literature  depends 
upon  the  American  people  themselves.  If  America  re- 
mains true  to  her  national  traditions  and  ideals,  if  she 
refuses  to  let  commercialism  dominate  her  life  and  her 
law,  the  coming  period  of  leisure  and  comfort  will  find 
expression  for  the  spirit  of  American  democracy  in 
writings  that  will  be  truly  national  and  at  the  same  time 
a  part  of  the  literature  which  embraces  all  the  written 
"  things  worthy  to  be  remembered  "  by  the  people  of 
the  world. 


CHAPTER  X 

THE  FRENCH  REVOLUTION  AND 
AFTERWARDS 

The  representatives  shall  pronounce  in  unison,  in  the  name  of 
the  French  people,  the  oath  to  live  free  or  to  die. 

Constitution  of  1791. 

The  preat  wheel  of  political  revolution  began  to  move  in  Amer- 
ica. Here  its  rotation  was  guarded,  regular,  and  safe.  Trans- 
ferred to  the  other  continent,  from  unfortunate  but  natural 
causes,  it  received  an  irregular  and  violent  impulse;  it  whirled 
along  with  fearful  celerity;  until  at  last,  like  the  chariot-wheels 
in  the  races  of  antiquity,  it  took  fire  from  the  rapidity  of  its  own 
motion,  and  blazed  onward,  spreading  conflagration  and  terror 
around.  Daniel  Webster  (Bunker  Hill  Oration). 

Any  attempt  to  trace  the  development  of  popular 
government  would  be  incomplete  without  a  survey  of 
the  French  Revolution,  that  great  eruption  of  popular 
discontent  which  shook  Europe  to  its  foundation  in 
the  last  years  of  the  eighteenth  century.  It  was  a 
movement  toward  government  by  the  people  in  marked 
contrast  to  the  slow-footed,  ponderous  growth  toward 
democracy  which  took  place  in  England  and  America. 
The  French  Revolution  was  not  the  result  of  changes 
accumulating  one  at  a  time,  but  of  the  explosion  of  pent- 
up  forces  which,  denied  natural  expression,  broke 
loose  in  uncontrolled  fury. 

This  terrific  upheaval  took  place  between  1789  and 
1800.  In  that  short  period,  the  ancient  autocracy  of 
France  was  overthrown;  a  new  government  of  the 
people  was  set  up;  the  king  and  the  queen  were  be- 

188 


190  AMERICAN  DEMOCRACY 

headed ;  the  old  order  of  society  was  demolished ;  the 
calendar  was  revised  and  renamed;  and  religion  was 
abolished. 

While  all  this  was  going  on,  practically  the  whole  of 
Europe  had  taken  up  arms  against  France,  After 
several  years  of  war  at  home  and  abroad,  the  revolu- 
tionary government  was  overthrown ;  the  leaders  of  the 
movement  were  executed ;  and,  in  the  reaction  that  took 
place,  France,  exhausted  and  confused,  fell  under  the 
sway  of  Napoleon  Bonaparte.  In  bare  outline?  that 
was  what  happened. 

The  French  Revolution  set  free  forces  that  make 
for  the  government  of  the  people,  yet  its  excesses 
checked  the  steady  normal  growth  of  democratic  insti- 
tutions and  lost  to  the  cause  of  democracy  the  support 
of  liberal-minded  people  the  world  over  who  were 
shocked  at  the  wild  lengths  to  which  the  revolution 
went. 

CAUSES    OF    THE    FRENCH    REVOLUTION 

While  the  people  of  England,  century  after  century, 
were  struggling  to  force  from  the  reluctant  hands  of  her 
despotic  kings  and  of  her  unreasoning  aristocracy  the 
right  of  political  freedom,  the  people  of  the  neighbor- 
ing country  of  France  appear  to  have  been  in  a  state 
of  political  inactivity.  The  king  was  the  ruling  power 
to  such  an  extent  that  Louis  XIV  might  well  have 
said,  "  I  am  the  state."  Louis  XIV  ruled  from  1643 
to  1715,  the  seventy-two  years  coinciding  with  the  Eng- 
lish periods  of  Charles  I,  the  Commonwealth  and  Crom- 
well, Charles  II,  James  II,  William  of  Orange  and 
Mary,  and  Queen  Anne.  During  this  time,  England 
went  through  a  Civil  War;  set  up  a  republic;  saw  the 
Restoration  of  the  Stuarts;  and  finally  the  establish- 


192  AMERICAN  DExMOCRACY 

ment  of  a  King  subject  to  Parliament.  In  France, 
during  the  same  period,  the  rulers  governed  as  they 
pleased.  The  "  Grand  Monarche  "  increased  the  power 
and  prestige  of  France  among  European  countries  and 
dazzled  his  people  by  national  glory.  The  government 
grew  to  be  a  highly  centralized  monarchy  with  the  King 
and  his  executive  council  in  absolute  control.  The 
court  of  France,  brilliant  and  extravagant,  needed 
large  sums  of  money  to  support  its  state,  and  the  King 
and  council  fixed  the  taxes,  levied  the  army,  drew  up 
"  edicts  " —  as  the  laws  were  called  —  and  ruled 
France  without  reference  to  the  needs  or  desires  of  its 
people. 

The  taxes  were  unreasonable  and  unbearable.  One 
of  them  —  the  gahelle  —  not  only  placed  a  tax  on  salt, 
but  forced  people  to  buy  salt  whether  they  used  it  or 
not;  another  —  the  courvec  —  was  a  road  tax  which 
compelled  peasant-farmers  to  leave  their  work  in  the 
fields  for  many  days  in  order  that  they  might  make  the 
highways  smoother  for  the  carriages  of  the  rich;  and 
a  third,  an  especially  hateful  tax  —  the  taille  —  was 
imposed  not  only  on  land,  but  on  all  manner  of  indus- 
try. The  nobles  and  clergy  were  exempt  from  paying 
any  taxes. 

The  long  and  extravagant  reign  of  Louis  XIV  was 
followed  by  that  of  Louis  XV  (1715-1774).  In  his 
reign  things  went  from  bad  to  worse  with  the  people. 
Finally  when  Louis  XVI  (1774-1792)  came  to  the 
throne,  the  trouble  reached  its  height.  France  was  al- 
most bankrupt  and  the  young  King,  finding  it  neces- 
sary to  take  extraordinary  measures  to  relieve  the  sit- 
uation, decided  to  call  an  election  of  the  ancient  and 
obsolete  French  legislative  assembly,  the  Estates  Gen- 
eral. 


194  AMERICAN  DEMOCRACY 

THE    ESTATES    GENERAL,    1789 

The  Estates  General  had  not  been  summoned  since 
1614,  175  years  before.  During  all  that  time,  the 
French  people  had  had  no  regular  training  in  carrying 
on  government,  but  there  had  grown  up  a  widespread 
feeling  of  intense  protest  against  the  unjust  taxes  that 
were  laid  on  peasants  on  the  one  hand,  and  against  the 
privileges  of  the  upper  classes  on  the  other.  The 
French  people  were  not  so  beaten  down  and  degraded 
as  it  is  sometimes  supposed;  indeed,  the  very  fact  that 
they  protested  so  vehemently  argues  that  they  were  in- 
telligent and  courageous  and  that  they  were  not  at  star- 
vation's door.  At  least  two-fifths  of  the  soil  of  France 
belonged  to  the  peasants,  and  the  people  of  the  towns 
—  the  burghers  —  though  they  possessed  little  land, 
contributed  much  the  larger  portion  of  the  nation's  cap- 
ital. Upon  the  burghers  —  or  bourgoisie,  as  they 
were  afterward  called  —  that  is  upon  the  bankers, 
lawyers,  physicians,  capitalists,  merchants,  contractors, 
and  high-grade  craftsmen,  the  leadership  of  the  French 
Revolution  fell. 

While  the  King  was  preparing  for  the  meeting  of  the 
Estates  General,  he  invited  the  people  to  send  w^rit- 
ten  statements  containing  suggestions  for  reform. 
Thousands  of  these  "  cahiers,"  which  were  nothing  more 
than  lists  of  grievances,  w^ere  sent  in.  These  proved  a 
powerful  educational  force,  as  they  set  the  people  to 
thinking  independently  about  w^ays  of  reform.  Louis 
XVI  lived  to  rue  the  day  that  he  invited  the  people  to 
give  open  voice  to  their  wrongs. 

THE    NATIONAL    ASSEMBLY 

The  Estates  General  represented  the  three  estates  of 
the  realm, —  the  clergy,  the  nobility,  and  the  commoners. 


J 96  AMERICAN  DEMOCRACY 

When  it  assembled  trouble  at  once  arose  as  to  whether 
it  should  sit  as  one  great  body  in  which  each  individual 
had  a  voice  or  whether  each  estate  should  vote  as  a 
unit.  The  third  estate,'  made  up  largely  of  lawyers, 
after  a  sharp  contest  with  the  King  and  the  nobles,  ad- 
journed to  a  neighboring  tennis-court  and,  constituting 
itself  as  the  "  National  Assembly,"  took  a  solemn  oath 
not  to  dissolve  until  a  constitution  for  France  had  been 
made.  The  frightened  King  tried  to  disperse  the 
Assembly  by  force  of  arms,  whereat  the  people  of  Paris 
on  July  14,  1789,  rose  in  wild  excitement  and  battered 
down  the  fortress  known  as  the  Bastile.  Since  that 
time,  July  14  has  been  celebrated  by  the  French  as  their 
national  holiday. 

From  this  time  on  events  moved  rapidly  in  a  double 
line.  The  Assembly  continued  its  work  with  steadiness 
and  sanity,  placing  Lafayette  in  command  of  the  Na- 
tional Guard ;  the  people  of  Paris  and  the  other  large 
cities  throughout  the  kingdom  organized  themselves  as 
"  communes  "  and  took  the  control  of  local  government 
into  their  own  hands.  Henceforward,  the  "  com- 
munes "  of  France  figure  as  vital  factors  in  the  history 
of  the  nation. 

A  period  of  confusion  and  terror  now  set  in,  the 
people  becoming  possessed  by  an  unreasonable  and  un- 
reasoning fear.  This  undefined,  overpowering  terror 
spread  throughout  the  country  and  relieved  itself  by 
the  wholesale  burning  of  chateaux.  A  series  of  crimes 
followed,  which  terrified  the  already  frightened  nobles 
almost  to  distraction.  The  maddened  people  declared 
that  they  would  no  longer  pay  taxes,  tithes,  or  rents. 

The  National  Assembly  felt  that  it  must  do  some- 
thing to  pacify  and  satisfy  the  people.  The  nobles 
who  had  remained  in  the  Assembly  took  the  lead  in  a 


198  AMERICAN  DEMOCRACY 

display  of  heroic  self-sacrifice,  voluntarily  laying  down 
their  ancient  privileges:  tithes  and  exemptions  from 
taxes  were  done  away  with;  the  hated  "taille"  was 
abolished  "  forever,"  and  all  citizens  were  made  eligible 
to  office. 

THE    CONSTITUTION    OF    1791 

Before  this,  the  Assembly  had  drawn  up  a  constitu- 
tion known  in  history  as  the  Constitution  of  1791.  It 
opened  with  the  famous  "  Declaration  of  the  Rights  of 
Man  and  Citizen  "  which  was  suggested  to  the  Assembly 
by  the  customary  Bill  of  Rights  found  in  the  American 
State  Constitutions.  Notable  among  its  clauses  are 
these :  "  Men  are  born  equal  in  rights  and  should  re- 
main so."  "  Law  is  the  expression  of  the  will  of  the 
people."  "  Each  citizen  has  a  right  to  a  share  in  mak- 
ing it."  "  It  must  be  the  same  for  all."  "  Society  has 
the  right  to  call  for  an  account  from  every  public 
agent  of  its  administration."  It  provided  that  the 
representatives  in  unison,  in  the  name  of  the  French 
people  take  "the  oath  to  live  free  or  to  die." 

The  Constitution  of  1791  provided  for  a  limited 
monarchy.  The  civil  rights  of  the  people  were  secured, 
and  equality  before  the  law  was  established ;  hereditary 
titles  and  special  privileges  were  abolished.  Yet  in  spite 
of  the  high-sounding  phrases  of  the  Declaration  of  the 
Rights  of  Man  and  Citizen,  there  was  no  intention  of 
universal  suffrage,  no  practical  government  by  the  peo- 
ple. By  the  restriction  of  suffrage  to  those  who  paid 
taxes  equal  to  three  days'  labor,  the  government  was 
left  in  the  hands  of  the  middle  class.  By  a  further 
gradation  according  to  wealth,  members  of  the  lowest 
class  could  vote,  those  of  the  second  class  could  hold 
minor  political  positions,  but  only  the  members  of  the 


THE  FRENCH  REVOLUTION  199 

third  or  most  wealthy  class  could  be  chosen  for  the 
higher  offices.  The  legislature  was  to  consist  of  one 
chamber  to  be  renewed  every  two  years.  A  strictly 
constitutional  King  whose  veto  could  be  over-ridden 
by  three  legislative  affirmations  was  to  be  the  chief 
executive.  By  the  mistake  of  making  unwise  and  arbi- 
trary laws  concerning  the  Church,  the  Revolution  lost 
the  support  of  the  46,000  village  priests  who  from 
the  first  had  stood  with  the  liberals.  The  King  signed 
the  new  Constitution,  but  he  continued  to  muddle  mat- 
ters hopelessly  until  the  radical  element  became  in- 
furiated at  certain  ill-advised  acts  of  his  and  the  Na- 
tional Guard  was  forced  to  quiet  the  Paris  mob. 

THE   KING   AND   THE   NEW  ASSEMBLY 

After  completing  its  work,  the  National  Assembly 
broke  up  and  gave  way  to  an  elected  assembly  provided 
by  the  new  Constitution.  The  elections  returned  an 
almost  entirely  new  assembly  composed  of  ardent  young 
lawyers  and  other  inexperienced  young  men  who  made 
inflammatory  speeches  expressing  the  most  advanced 
and   revolutionary   views.     The    assembly   ordered   the 

"  emigres  " —  the  nobles  who  had  fled  the  country 

to  come  back  to  France  under  penalty  of  death;  it 
also  ordered  all  the  priests  who  would  not  accept  the 
arrangements  of  the  new  Constitution  to  be  deported. 
A  confusing  time  of  civil  and  religious  unrest  followed 
until  the  Assembly  felt  that  some  move  must  be  made 
to  unite  the  warring  factions.  They  hit  upon  a  for- 
eign war  as  an  efl^ective  means  of  bringing  about  na- 
tional unity.  In  the  furtherance  of  this  design,  they 
found  an  excuse  for  a  war  with  Austria,  which  they 
forced  the  helpless  and  bewildered  Louis  XVI  to  declare. 

Louis  XVI  had  signed  the  Constitution  of  1791  with 


200  AMERICAN  DEMOCRACY 

mental  and  spoken  reservations.  Soon  after  the  decla- 
ration of  war,  the  King  in  an  ill-timed  spirit  of  inde- 
pendence vetoed  some  measures  passed  by  the  Assembly 
and  dismissed  his  ministry.  The  Paris  mob  rose  with 
furious  clamor  and  invaded  the  Tuileries.  They 
rushed  into  the  presence  of  the  royal  family,  dragged 
out  the  frightened  King,  put  a  red  cap  on  his  head,  and 
made  him  drink  the  health  of  the  new  regime. 

This  act  of  disrespect  and  irreverent  violence  toward 
the  King  led  the  neighboring  countries  to  act.  Prus- 
sia joined  Austria  against  the  French.  The  leaders  of 
the  Paris  mob,  .notably  Danton,  a  prominent  Radical, 
now  determined  to  depose  the  King.  In  a  short  time 
the  Tuileries  was  attacked  again,  the  King  was  sus- 
pended, and  a  new  Constitution  was  ordered  drafted. 

THE    REIGN    OF    TERROR 

Then  it  was  that  the  Legislative  Assembly  gave  way 
to  the  Convention  for  forming  a  new  Constitution ;  and 
the  Reign  of  Terror  began.  Events  moved  rapidly. 
Monarchy  was  abolished  September  25,  1792,  the  Year 
One,  according  to  the  new  French  calendar ;  a  republic 
was  established ;  three  thousand  suspected  citizens  were 
thrown  into  prison  by  the  Paris  mob;  an  army  was 
raised;  the  invading  enemies  were  promptly  repelled; 
and  the  Convention  sent  out  proclamations  to  all  the 
people  of  Europe  calling  upon  them  to  cast  off  their 
"  tyrants."  After  months  of  imprisonment  and  hu- 
miliation, the  King  was  tried  and,  as  Citizen  Louis 
Capet,  was  condemned  as  a  traitor  and  executed. 

The  English  liberals,  men  like  Burke  who  had  ap- 
plauded the  first  movements  of  the  Revolution,  were 
horrified  at  the  extravagant  violence  of  the  Convention 


THE  FRENCH  REVOLUTION  201 

and  lost  faith  in  the  capability  of  the  people  to  rule. 
Gouverneur  Morris,  the  American  minister  to  France, 
was  thoroughly  disgusted  with  the  "  French  madmen." 
But  the  Convention  went  on,  declaring  war  on  England, 
Holland,  and  other  countries,  until  France  was  at  war 
with  all  her  neighbors.  The  furious  career  of  the  Revo- 
lution was  for  a  moment  somewhat  checked  by  the  com- 
bined efforts  of  the  other  European  rulers  who  got  their 
heads  together  and  seriously  planned  the  partition  of 
France. 

At  this  threat  the  Convention  put  the  government 
into  the  hands  of  a  Committee  of  Public  Safety  with 
unlimited  powers.  They  proposed  to  crush  the  des- 
potism of  kings  by  a  despotism  of  power.  A  group  of 
ultra-revolutionists,  called  the  Mountain,  headed  by 
Danton,  Robespierre,  and  St.  Just,  and  supported  by 
the  Commune  of  Paris  took  things  into  their  own  hands. 
They  said  the  ignorant  people,  though  well  intentioned, 
would  lead  the  country  back  to  slavery  if  they  were 
not  checked. 

All  over  the  country  civil  war  threatened.  The  peas- 
ants of  La  Vendee  rose  against  the  Republic,  refusing 
to  fight  for  a  government  that  had  killed  their  King 
and  exiled  their  priests.  Marseilles  and  Bordeaux  were 
indignant  at  the  treatment  of  the  moderate  revolution- 
ists. Besides  this,  the  Allies  were  attacking  the  fron- 
tiers of  France;  the  English  took  Valenciennes  and, 
later  on,  Dunkirk,  while  the  Prussians  were  advancing 
in  Alsace. 

But  the  Committee  of  Public  Safety  pulled  them- 
selves together  with  marvelous  energy,  and  their  depu- 
ties aroused  the  patriotism  of  the  raw  recruits.  The 
civil  revolt  in  La  Vendee  was  put  down  with  terrific 


202  AMERICAN  DEMOCRACY 

severity,  2,000  Vendean  peasants  being  shot  or 
drowned  in  the  Loire.  Lyons  was  bombarded  and  cap- 
tured and  2,000  of  its  inhabitants  were  massacred. 

The  Committee  of  Public  Safety  carried  out  these 
atrocities  openly  and  consciously,  in  an  effort  to  strike 
terror  into  the  enemies  at  home  and  abroad.  Mean- 
while the  guillotine  was  set  up  in  the  Place  de  la  Revo- 
lution, and  its  terrible  work  was  begun.  A  Revolu- 
tionary tribunal  was  instituted  in  Paris  and  sympa- 
thizers with  emigres  or  royalty  —  in  fact,  all  who  were 
not  ardent  supporters  of  the  Revolution  —  were  thrown 
into  prison.  Marie  Antoinette,  the  deposed  Queen, 
was  publicly  executed  amid  the  jeers  of  the  Paris  mob. 
Day  after  day  the  tumbrils  rattled  by  and  the  nobles 
of  France  paid  the  penalty  of  their  inheritance. 

The  Reign  of  Terror  was  not  a  wanton  display  of 
blood-letting.  It  was  a  deliberate  attempt  to  gain  the 
ends  desired  by  "frightfulness,"  a  method  that  has  been 
used  from  time  immemorial  when  war  is  being  waged. 
It  is  customary  to  designate  the  slaughter  of  citizens 
by  a  revolutionary  power  as  the  "  Red  Terror,"  and 
that  by  a  constituted  authority  as  the  "White  Terror.'* 
Both  are  coldly  calculated  to  win  ends  by  means  of 
force  and  fear. 

After  the  first  wave  of  the  Reign  of  Terror  had 
spent  its  force,  the  dominating  spirits  of  the  Committee 
of  Public  Safety  began  to  fall  out  with  one  another, 
and  it  was  not  long  until  one  after  the  other  mounted 
the  steps  of  the  guillotine.  In  less  than  a  year  the 
Revolutionary  leaders  followed.  In  a  remarkably  short 
time  the  Revolutionary  clubs  were  closed  and  the  Con- 
vention found  itself  in  danger  of  being  turned  out  by 
the  friends  of  monarchy.  Soon  the  wealthier  classes 
of  Paris  organized  and  prepared  to  resist  the  destruc- 


THE  FRENCH  REVOLUTION  203 

tion  of  their  property.  The  fury  of  the  Revolution 
had  begun  to  abate,  the  pendulum  had  swung  to  its 
limit,  and  was  ready  for  a  return  to  the  other  extreme 
of  its  arc. 

NAPOLEON    BONAPARTE 

In  desperation  the  Convention  turned  to  the  army 
to  save  it  from  annihilation,  choosing  for  a  leader  a 
small,  easy-going  young  Corsican  officer  who  had  been 
working  in  a  clerical  position  in  Paris.  This  young 
man  was  Napoleon  Bonaparte.  He  turned  the  cannon 
of  the  Swiss  guard  into  the  streets  leading  to  the 
Tuileries  and  mowed  down  the  royalists  with  grape 
shot.  The  reactionaries  were  completely  routed  and 
the  way  was  opened  for  the  daring  ambitions  of  the 
quiet  young  officer  who  dreamed  of  conquest  and  made 
his  dreams  come  true. 

Popular  government  in  Europe  was  materially 
checked  by  the  wars  waged  on  that  continent  from  1795 
to  1815.  Napoleon  played  havoc  *with  the  countries  of 
Europe,  he  "  tore  up  the  map  "  of  the  great  part  of 
that  continent,  and  made  himself  and  his  next  of  kin 
kings  and  princes  from  Italy  to  t^e  Scandinavian  pen- 
insula. But  for  all  Napoleon's  brilliant  career,  for  all 
the  glory  he  brought  to  France  and  to  himself,  Waterloo 
came  on  June  18,  1815,  and  with  it  the  final  downfall 
of  the  great  Emperor  of  the  French. 

Napoleon  established  and  made  permanent  the  ideas 
of  the  Revolution  along  orderly,  institutional  lines,  so 
that,  while  it  must  be  admitted  that  he  was  a  despot 
in  every  sense  of  the  word,  it  must  also  be  conceded  that 
it  took  a  Napoleon  and  a  Napoleonic  era  to  fix  and 
establish  equality  in  the  eyes  of  the  law,  and  nationality, 
if  not  liberty,  in  place  of  the  indifferent  herding  to- 


204  AMERICAN  DEMOCRACY 

gether  under  one  ruler  of  various  peoples  with  no  racial 
bond. 

But  Napoleon's  greatest  contribution  to  the  world 
was  the  unsurpassed  system  of  laws  called  the  Code 
Napoleon,  which  has  remained  the  law,  not  only  of 
France  but  of  practically  all  Europe,  excepting  Eng- 
land and  Russia.  It  must  always  be  remembered  that 
though  Napoleon  destroyed  political  liberty,  he  pre- 
served equality  before  the  law;  and' by  instituting  a 
fairer  distribution  of  taxes  removed  the  disproportion- 
ate burden  from  the  poorer  classes  and  placed  it  on 
abler  shoulders. 

THE    CONGRESS    OF    VIENNA,    1815 

In  1814,  the  kings  and  princes  whom  Napoleon  had 
placed  upon  European  thrones,  tumbled  down  amidst 
the  general  upheaval  caused  by  his  Russian  campaign 
and  his  exile  to  the  island  of  Elba.  At  once,  the  gov- 
ernments of  the  countries  ho  had  conquered  reestab- 
lished themselves  on  their  former  royal  seats.  When 
Louis  XVIII  became  King  of  France,  the  people  seem 
to  have  made  no  resistance,  largely  because  they  did  not 
know  how  to  resist  effectively. 

With  Napoleon  out  of  the  way,  the  rulers  of  Europe 
assembled  behind  locked  doors  at  Vienna  to  undertake 
the  delicate  and  dangerous  task  of  smoothing  out  and 
remaking  the  rumpled  map  of  Europe  on  an  autocratic 
foundation.  They  based  their  decisions  on  the  prin- 
ciple of  "  legitimacy  " —  that  is,  on  hereditary  right 
to  throne  and  territory.  They  seemed  never  to  have 
heard  anything  about  "  the  consent  of  the  governed." 
The  words  "  constitution  "  and  "  revolution "  were 
wiped  out  as  being  unfit  to  be  used.  The  Congress  was 
a  remarkably  selfish  and  undemocratic  assembly.     No 


THE  FRENCH  REVOLUTION  205 

commoners  were  there;  no  representatives  of  the  peo- 
ple ;  no  mind  filled  with  a  wish  to  bring  about  a  just  and 
lasting  peace  for  the  sake  of  people  who  had  borne  the 
brunt  of  the  wars.  On  the  contrary,  the  Congress  of 
Vienna  was  made  up  of  Kings  and  representatives  of 
Kings,  the  one  thought  in  the  mind  of  each  being  to  get 
all  he  possibly  could  by  fair  means  or  foul. 

The  leading  spirit  of  this  gathering  was  the  Aus- 
trian Prime  Minister,  Metternich,  whose  main  idea  was 
to  get  things  back  where  they  were  before  the  French 
Revolution.  England,  Austria,  Prussia,  and  Russia, 
the  leading  powers,  agreed  before  the  meeting  as  to 
the  claims  which  each  should  press.  After  the  Con- 
gress opened,  the  lesser  powers  were  allowed  to  agree  to 
the  previously  arranged  plans.  The  members  of  the 
Congress  acted  like  highway  robbers  over  a  pile  of 
booty ;  they  simply  carved  states  into  slices  and  dis- 
tributed them  about  regardless  of  the  nationality  or  the 
wishes  of  the  inhabitants. 

Germany,  which  had  consisted  of  over  three  hun- 
dred states,  was  consolidated  into  thirty-eight  states ; 
Prussia  got  a  slice  on  the  Rhine  as  well  as  Pomerania 
and  a  large  part  of  Poland;  Russia  was  awarded  Fin- 
land, a  nation  entirely  alien ;  Sardinia,  the  largest  state 
of  Italy,  came  away  much  displeased  because  Austria 
had  secured  most  of  the  territory  that  Sardinia  wanted. 
Not  being  greedy,  Switzerland  was  satisfied  with  a  guar- 
antee of  neutrality.  Denmark  was  not  let  off  with  a 
whole  skin  as  she  was  compelled  to  give  Norway  to 
Sweden  because  Sweden  had  lost  Finland.  Norway 
objected,  and  drew  up  a  Constitution,  but  on  being  al- 
lowed to  have  a  separate  government,  she  accepted 
Sweden's  King  as  a  ruler.  Belgium  was  not  on  the 
map  in  1815,  for,  regardless  of  the  objection  of  the  in- 


206  AMERICAN  DEMOCRACY 

habitants,  the  territory  now  occupied  by  Belgium  was 
made  part  of  the  Netherlands.  By  far  the  larger  part 
of  Poland  went  to  the  Czar  of  Russia.  To  keep  away 
from  contact  with  France,  looked  upon  as  a  hot-bed 
of  revolution,  Metternich  consolidated  Austria's  pos- 
sessions and  annexed  certain  Italian  States  north  of 
the  Adriatic,  thus  making  "  unredeemed  Italy  "  one  of 
the  sore  spots  of  Europe. 

England,  as  pay-master  of  the  Allies,  was  in  a  posi- 
tion to  get  what  she  asked.  She  added  the  island  of 
Ceylon  and  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope  to  her  already  ex- 
tensive foreign  holdings,  so  that  at  the  close  of  the  Con- 
gress of  Vienna,  the  British  Empire  led  the  world  in 
colonial  possessions. 

The  Congress  of  Vienna  did  not  try  to  make  any  plan 
that  recognized  the  claims  of  nationality;  in  fact,  it 
failed  utterly  to  recognize  any  such  claim.  But  the 
spirit  of  nationality  continued  to  grow  until  to-day,  at 
the  close  of  the  Great  War,  there  is  manifest  a  wide- 
spread and  intense  impulse  of  the  peoples  naturally  re- 
lated to  join  themselves  into  independent  nations. 

At  the  conclusion  of  its  conference,  which  had  been 
interrupted  by  Napoleon's  escape  from  Elba,  his 
last  attempt  to  dominate  Europe,  and  his  final  de- 
feat at  Waterloo,  the  Congress  of  Vienna  summed  up 
its  deliberations,  treaties,  and  arrangements  in  the 
"  Final  Act,"  which  was  issued  for  convenient  reference. 
Presently  the  European  monarchs  and  plenipotentia- 
ries returned  to  their  various  countries,  climbed  upon 
their  uneasy  thrones,  or  into  their  insecure  cabinets, 
devoutly  hoping  that  an  era  of  peace  had  begun.  They 
set  about  ruling  as  if  nothing  had  happened,  as  if  there 
had  been  no  French  Revolution,  no  Napoleonic  Wars, 


THE  FRENCH  REVOLUTION  207 

no  new  birth  of  the  spirit  of  nationality.  Their  recent 
painful  experience  had  taught  them  nothing,  nor  did 
they  pay  any  heed  to  the  Industrial  Revolution  —  al- 
ready well  under  way  —  which,  as  the  result  of  the  in- 
troduction of  machinery,  was  beginning  to  decrease  the 
workmen's  wages. 

The  rulers  ignored  the  fact  that  the  people  were  de- 
sirous of  greater  freedom.  Each  government  tried  to 
make  itself  strong  by  open  treaties  and  secret  under- 
standings. They  tried  to  set  up  a  "  Balance  of 
Power"  which  would  keep  any  one  nation  of  Europe 
from  becoming  so  powerful  that  it  would  be  a  danger  to 
the  others.  The  Congress  decided  to  have  regular 
meetings  "  for  the  repose  and  prosperity  of  nations 
and  for  the  furtlierance  of  the  peace  of  Europe."  In 
reality  the  purpose  was  to  keep  Europe  under  this 
control. 

THE  RETURN  OF  THE  BOURBONS,  1815 

After  Napoleon,  France  went  back  to  the  Bourbons 
and  the  "  legitimate  "  monarchy  under  Louis  XVIII. 
The  French  Revolution  was  apparently  repudiated,  and 
governments  seemed  to  slip  back  into  their  old  grooves. 
Not  only  in  France  but  throughout  the  continent,  the 
excesses  of  the  Revolution  had  frightened  men  at  the 
possibilities  of  what  might  happen  when  the  people 
assumed  control  of  the  state,  with  the  result  that  for  a 
number  of  years  thereafter  any  evident  movements  look- 
ing toward  more  democratic  ideals  were  for  a  time 
promptly  crushed.  But  underneath  the  surface,  popu- 
lar discontent  with  existing  conditions  was  at  work, 
setting  up  the  slower  yet  surer  process  of  education 
in   the   place   of    revolution,    while   across    the    sea,    in 


208  AMERICAN  DEMOCRACY 

America,  the  constant  reminder  of  what  men  could  do 
by  way  of  self-government  gave  promise  of  a  better 
day. 

As  might  have  been  expected  the  people  of  France 
did  not  remain  contented.  Though  Louis  XVIII  had 
granted  a  Constitution,  they  were  not  satisfied.  When 
Charles  X,  who  succeeded  Louis  XVIII,  had  no  mind 
to  rule  tamely  as  a  constitutional  monarch,  but  set  out 
to  rule  as  he  pleased.  Revolution  at  once  began  to 
make  headway.  The  elections  of  1830  brought  into 
the  Chamber  of  Deputies  a  great  number  opposed  to  the 
King.  Charles  sought  to  overcome  this  difficult  situa- 
tion by  suspending  liberty  of  the  press,  reducing  the 
number  of  voters,  and  virtually  destroying  the  last 
vestige  of  popular  government. 

KEVOLUTIONS  OF  1830 

Then  came  the  July  Revolution  of  1830  with  Paris  as 
the  center  of  activity.  Charles  X  hastily  abdicated 
and  in  short  order  the  crown  went  to  another  Bourbon, 
Louis  Phillippe,  the  "  Citizen  King."  He  paraded  his 
democratic  leanings  as  he  went  about  among  the  people, 
dressed  as  a  well-to-do  merchant  might  dress  and  car- 
rying a  green  umbrella  as  a  sign  of  his  liberal  ideas. 
But  1830  did  not  liberate  France,  although  the  tri- 
color of  the  French  Revolution  took  the  place  of  the 
white  and  gold  fleur-de-lis  of  the  Bourbons.  Political 
liberty  was  not  much  advanced;  the  power  passed  even 
more  completely  into  the  hands  of  the  middle  class 
bankers,  speculators,  manufacturers,  merchants  — 
the  "  bourgeoisie".  Though  the  sovereignty  of  the  peo- 
ple was  proclaimed,  it  was  in  reality  the  will  of  only 
eighty  thousand  voters  out  of  a  population  of  thirty 
million. 

The  same  restlessness  that  brought  about  the  Revo- 


THE  FRENCH  REVOLUTION  209 

lution  of  1830  was  stirring  in  other  parts  of  Europe. 
Belgium,  which  the  Congress  of  Vienna  had  added  to 
William  of  Orange's  Netherland  dominions,  was  able 
by  July,  1831,  to  throw  off  the  yoke  of  the  Netherlands, 
draw  up  a  constitution  based  on  the  sovereignty  of  the 
people,  and  elect  Leopold  of  Coburg  as  King.  In  Eng- 
land the  "  First  Reform  Bill  "  was  passed  in  1832,  al- 
though Wellington,  then  Prime  Minister,  in  the  face  of 
rotten  and  pocket  boroughs  and  the  unrepresented 
thousands  in  manufacturing  towns,  had  insisted  that 
the  existing  representation  in  England  could  not  be 
improved  upon.  In  fact  by  this  time,  liberal  parties 
had  developed  in  almost  all  the  countries  of  Europe. 
These  parties  accepted  the  principles  of  the  Declaration 
of  the  Rights  of  Man  and  Citizen.  Because  of  the 
great  changes  wrought  by  the  Industrial  Revolution, 
many  thinkers  began  to  speculate  on  a  possible  com- 
plete reorganization  of  society  and.  to  many.  Social- 
ism, which  first  appeared  between  1830  and  1848,  pre- 
sented itself  as  a  new  method  of  solving  the  question  of 
justice  to  all  men. 

REVOLUTIONS  OF  1848 

The  next  great  wave  of  republicanism  in  Europe  was 
felt  in  the  year  of  revolutions,  1848.  France  then  saw 
the  establishment  of  the  Second  Republic.  The  Citizen 
King  had  kept  himself  in  favor  for  eighteen  years,  his 
ministry  ruling  the  country  by  organized  bribery.  In 
the  meantime,  things  were  going  from  bad  to  worse  for 
the  working-class.  Finally  the  King  abdicated,  the  gov- 
ernment was  overthrown  and  a  National  Assembly  was 
elected  by  universal  manhood  suffrage  to  draw  up  a 
Constitution  providing  for  a  Republic.  As  a  result  of 
closing  the  National  Workshops  which  had  been  set  up, 


210  AMERICAN  DEMOCRACY 

hundreds  of  thousands  of  workmen  were  thrown  on  the 
streets.  Then  followed  a  period  of  dire  confusion  and 
misery  which  was  brought  to  an  end  by  the  bullets  and 
bayonets  of  the  soldiers.  Twenty  thousand  men  per- 
ished, four  thousand  citizens  were  transported,  thirty 
newspapers  were  suppressed,  and  the  leaders  of  the  op- 
position were  imprisoned.  The  revolt  was  put  down  but 
at  a  cost  of  a  lasting  hatred  between  working-men  and 
capitalists. 

In  November  1848  a  new  Constitution  was  promul- 
gated and  the  elections  took  place.  Among  the  candi- 
dates was  Louis  Napoleon,  nephew  of  Napoleon  I. 
His  chief  asset  was  his  name  —  but  it  served  to  elect 
him.  After  a  few  years,  by  a  sudden  political  move, 
he  appealed  to  the  people  to  confirm  him  as  President 
for  ten  years.  Seven  and  a  half  million  out  of  eight 
million  voted  "  yes  "  to  the  question  he  put  to  them. 
A  few  years  later,  following  his  great  uncle's  example, 
he  made  himself  Emperor  Napoleon  III  and  began  to 
rule  as  a  benevolent  despot,  the  government  slipping 
back  into  the  old  grooves  of  absolute  monarchy. 

The  year  1848  saw  most  remarkable  revolutionary 
movements  all  over  Europe.  Like  the  visible  shaking  of 
an  earthquake,  the  entire  continent  felt  the  impulse  to- 
ward political  freedom.  In  some  countries  the  move- 
ment took  definite  shape  and  showed  some  real  promise 
of  change,  but  in  all  cases,  except  in  France,  practically 
nothing  in  the  way  of  more  democratic  government 
came  at  that  time.  The  influence  of  the  popular  dis- 
content, of  course,  remained.  The  Hungarians  and  the 
Bohemians  made  vigorous  efforts  to  shake  off  Austrian 
rule,  but  the  Bohemians  were  crushed  by  a  military 
force  and  the  Hungarians  were  likewise  overpowered  so 
that  their  independence  was  put  off  for  twenty  years 


THE  FRENCH  REVOLUTION  211 

longer.  In  Germany,  the.  Frankfort  Convention  of 
18i8  met  to  draw  up  a  Constitution  for  a  United  Ger- 
many. But  because  of  the  influence  of  Austria  the 
work  of  the  Convention  was  repudiated. 

On  the  whole  the  Revolutions  of  1848  did  little  more 
than  register  popular  discontent.  The  day  of  libera- 
tion was  postponed.  The  rulers  of  Europe,  unable  to 
read  the  meaning  of  these  upheavals,  congratulated 
themselves  on  their  victory  over  the  revolutionists. 

Switzerland  was  the  one  lone  republic  that  remained 
in  Europe.  England  had  a  limited  monarchy ;  but  the 
England  of  1848  was  not  the  England  of  1914. 
Greece  had  won  her  independence  from  Turkey  in  1829 
and  had  established  a  little  kingdom  of  her  own.  Bel- 
gium, although  a  monarchy,  had  a  liberal  Constitution, 
one  of  the  provisions  of  which  being  compulsory  voting. 
The  Constitution  of  Spain  had  a  like  provision.  All 
the  other  states  of  Europe  were  monarchies  of  a  greater 
or  less  degree  of  absolutism. 

Thousands  of  the  people  of  European  countries  de- 
siring relief  from  the  heavy  burdens  of  autocracy  and 
hearing  of  the  land  of  freedom  across  the  Atlantic,  col- 
lected their  few  possessions  and  set  out  for  the  United 
States  of  America,  a  land  that  was  indeed  a  land  of 
promise  to  them.  Among  these  were  the  best  and  most 
ambitious  of  all  nationalities  who,  because  of  poverty 
had  little  chance  for  progress  in  the  lands  from  which 
they  came  but  who  saw  in  this  free  country  —  their  free 
country  —  an  opportunity  and  a  hope. 


CHAPTER  XI 
THE  GOVERNMENT  OF  GERMANY 

There  was  a  time,  not  long  ago  when  German  theorists,  men 
who  could  not  or  would  not  learn  the  lessons  of  history,  in  their 
chagrin  longed  for  a  future  which  would  set  German  life  free 
from  Prussian  militarism.  The  present  has  taught  them  the  les- 
son which  the  past  could  not  teach,  for  to-day  it  is  by  militarism 
that  not  only  the  liberty,  but  the  future  of  the  German  nation 
itself  is  upheld  and  we  come  to  recognize  its  proper  character 
without  reserve;  then  it  will  be  discovered  where  its  weakness, 
and  where  its  strength  lies.  Then  it  can  assert  before  the  world 
that  its  greatest  strength  which  has  stood  the  test  of  the  past 
and  the  present,  is  to  be  found  in  that  which  in  the  hour  of  direct 
need  and  danger  saved  the  life  of  Germany:  German  militarism. 
"Imperial  Germany  ,"  written  in  1916  by 
,  Former  Chancellor  von  Bvlow. 

The  government  of  the  United  States  can  be  more 
clearly  understood  by  comparing  it  with  a  government 
conducted  on  principles  that  are  in  strong  contrast  with 
the  American  idea  of  rule  by  the  people ;  one  that  works 
on  the  principle  that  the  heads  of  governments  derive 
their  powers  not  from  the  consent  of  the  governed  but 
from  a  sovereign  power  that  comes  with  birth.  Such 
a  government  is  generally  termed  an  Autocracy.  Rus- 
sia up  to  March,  1917,  was  an  Autocracy;  Germany 
until  November,  1918,  was  in  its  essence  an  Autocracy. 
As  it  was  against  the  German  Empire  that  the  United 
States  was  arrayed  in  the  Great  War,  some  knowledge 
of  the  development  of  the  government  and  ideals  of  that 
country  may  well  become  a  part  of  the  American  citi- 
zen's equipment. 

212 


THE  GOVERNMENT  OF  GERMANY  213 

EARLY    HISTORY    OF    GERMANY 

Although  the  primitive  form  of  self-government  com- 
mon to  all  European  countries  appeared  at  an  early 
date  in  Germany,  and  while  local  self-government  has 
always  flourished  there,  national  self-government  never 
developed  on  German  territory.  National  unity,  be- 
gun in  the  great  tribal  assemblies.,  gradually  gave 
way  to  the  domination  of  a  brood  of  petty  princes  un- 
til, finally,  anything  like  a  national  assembly  died  out. 
By  the  year  800,  Charlemagne  had  united  the  territory 
now  occupied  by  Germany,  France,  the  kingdom  of 
Austria,  and  a  part  of  Italy  into  one  great  empire. 
This  great  and  good  monarch  was  crowned  Emperor  of 
the  Romans,  and  thus  was  made  the  beginning  of  what 
later  became  the  Holy  Roman  Empire. 

After  Charlemagne's  death,  his  vast  empire  was 
divided  among  his  three  sons.  The  eastern  part  in  time 
became  Austria;  the  central  part,  at  first  extending 
across  the  Alps  and  into  Italy,  Germany;  and  the 
western  division,  France.  Germany  soon  broke  up  into 
small  kingdoms,  principalities,  and  free  towns.  At  one 
time  there  were  upward  of  1800  separate  Germanic 
sovereignties  each  directly  or  indirectly  under  an  abso- 
lute ruler. 

In  the  course  of  years,  the  larger  states  of  Germany, 
together  with  Germanic  Austria,  formed  a  league  of 
nations  "  neither  holy  nor  Roman  nor  an  empire," 
which  was  nevertheless  called  the  Holy  Roman  Empire. 
The  only  bond  of  union  that  held  together  this  shape- 
less confederation  was  the  person  of  the  Emperor,  who 
was  elected  by  the  leagued  sovereigns.  The  Emperor 
was  usually  of  the  royal  family  of  Austria,  the  famous 
Hapsburg  dynasty,  which  for  one  thousand  years  con- 


214  AMERICAN  DEMOCRACY 

tinued  the  dominant  power,  until  pushed  out  of  the  im- 
perial league  by  the  Hohenzollerns,  an  aggressive  Prus- 
sian famil}^,  which,  beginning  in  1192  with  the  insig- 
nificant Mark  Brandenburg,  had  developed  the  king- 
dom of  Prussia. 

NAPOI.EON  AND   GERMANY 

The  Holy  Roman  Empire  continued  its  uncertain 
existence  until  the  beginning  of  the  nineteenth  century, 
when  Napoleon,  claiming  not  divine  right  to  arbitrate 
the  fate  of  nations,  but  simply  the  right  of  his  "  tal- 
ents," played  havoc  with  the  Hapsburgs  and  Hohen- 
zollerns in  his  astounding  upsetting  of  the  European 
chess-board.  He  tossed  about  Germany's  three  hun- 
dred states  without  regard  to  the  desires  of  rulers  or 
peoples  and  reduced  their  number  to  about  forty. 

Napoleon  was  especially  hard  on  Prussia,  which  had 
risen  to  a  position  of  dominance  under  Frederick,  the 
Great  Elector  (1640-1688).  His  great-grandson  was 
Frederick  the  Great  (1740-1786),  a  military  genius, 
who  made  his  country  strong  for  the  sake  of  making 
his  throne  strong.  Frederick  the  Great  was  a  most 
thorough  cynic,  utterly  disbelieving  in  truth  and  loyalty 
in  individuals,  and  grimly  using  his  subjects  of  "  fools 
and  paupers."  Under  Frederick,  Prussia  became  a 
pure  Autocracy,  in  which  the  prince  with  his  ministers 
and  officers  ruled  without  restraint  from  any  assembly 
of  subjects. 

As  a  result  of  Napoleon's  outrageous  treatment  of 
Germany,  the  spirit  of  nationality  was  awakened.  Once 
aroused  it  was  kept  alive  by  the  memory  of  the  march 
and  counter-march  of  the  French  Emperor's  armies 
across  German  territory.  Napoleon  battered  down 
the  Holy  Roman  Empire  when  he  consolidated  all  the 


THE  GOVERNMENT  OF  GERMANY  215 

German  states  —  wisely  omitting  Prussia  and  Austria 
—  into  the  "  Confederation  of  the  Rhine,"  with  him- 
self as  Protector. 

MOVEMENTS    TOWARD    UNITY 

After  Napoleon's  downfall,  the  Congress  of  Vienna 
in  1815  set  up  a  Germanic  Confederation,  a  "  loose 
league  "  of  the  sovereigns  of  thirty-eight  states  with  a 
Federal  Diet  which  met  at  Frankfort  and  was  presided 
over  by  the  Austrian  representative.  "  It  was  not  a 
government  at  all;  it  was  a  polite  and  ceremonious  way 
of  doing  nothing."  It  was  a  government  somewhat 
like  the  one  the  thirteen  colonies  attempted  to  carry 
on  under  the  Articles  of  Confederation.  The  states, 
not  the  people,  were  represented;  there  was  no  federal 
executive,  the  member  states  carried  out  the  decrees 
only  if  they  wished  to  do  so.  There  was  no  federal 
army.  No  fundamental  change  could  be  made  except 
by  unanimous  consent.  This  possibility  of  one  vote's 
power  to  block  any  proposed  concerted  action  was 
termed  the  "  liberum  veto."  Moreover  the  Federal 
Constitution  was  built  on  no  idea  of  German  unity, 
nor  did  it  provide  any  method  of  giving  political  edu- 
cation to  the  middle  class  of  Germany.  Unlike  the  peo- 
ple of  the  United  States,  the  German  people  had  not 
been  free  to  develop  a  government  for  themselves ;  they 
had  been  and  continued  to  be  hampered  by  the  outworn 
customs  and  the  outlawed  claims  of  rulers  who  held  that 
the  King  was  the  source  of  government. 

But  there  was  a  constant  growth  of  liberal  senti- 
ment, led  by  broad-minded  men  who  wished  to  see  a 
united  yet  free  and  democratic  Germany.  They 
wanted  the  institutions  of  republican  countries  —  a 
legislature  controlling  the  budget,   a  free  press,  trial 


216  AMERICAN  DEMOCRACY 

by  jurj^,  a  system  of  local  self-government  linked  to 
the  central  government,  an  independent  judiciary,  and 
a  national  guard  which  would  place  control  in  the  hands 
of  the  people.  The  efforts  of  these  liberals  were  hin- 
dered by  the  narrow  selfishness  of  the  princes  of  the 
states,  each  of  whom  wished  to  keep  all  his  kingly  pre- 
rogatives and  privileges  and  feared  that  he  would  be 
robbed  of  certain  inherited  honors  and  powers,  if  a 
real  German  union  should  be  brought  about.  But  in 
spite  of  the  German  sovereigns,  during  the  first  half 
of  the  nineteenth  century,  several  well-defined  attempts 
at  uniting  Germany  under  a  liberal  form  of  government 
were  made. 

THE    CONSTITUTION    OF    1848 

Though  little  was  accomplished  by  these  movements, 
the  desire  for  constitutional  liberty  was  kept  alive. 
Germany  felt  the  Revolutions  of  1848  to  such  a  degree 
that  Frederick  William  IV,  King  of  Prussia,  a  mean 
and  timid  soul,  allowed  a  National  Assembly  of  six  hun- 
dred delegates,  elected  by  universal  suffrage  from  all 
the  German  states,  to  meet  in  convention  at  Frankfort, 
for  the  purpose  of  drawing  up  a  Constitution.  The 
Convention  was  made  up  of  men  who,  though  they  had 
met  for  the  final  organization  of  the  German  Gov- 
ernment in  the  name  of  the  German  people,  had  no 
real  authority.  The  assembly  could  lay  plans,  but  the 
government  alone  could  pass  upon  them.  After  some 
difficulty  as  to  membership  in  the  proposed  union, 
it  was  finally  decided  to  include  only  Prussia  and  the 
states  that  had  belonged  to  the  German  Confederation 
of  the  Rhine  of  1815.  This  omission  of  Austria  re- 
lieved Prussia  of  the  only  rival  that  she  feared. 

When  the  Constitution  was  finally  completed,  the  im- 


THE  GOVERNMENT  OF  GERMANY  217 

perial  diadem  was  offered  to  Frederick  William  IV. 
But  by  this  time,  Frederick  had  secured  the  backing  of 
the  ruler  of  Austria,  who  had  been  busy  gaining  the 
support  of  the  princes  of  southern  Germany.  Em- 
boldened by  this  sympathy,  he  refused  the  crown,  in- 
dignantly denying  the  right  of  the  Frankfort  assembly 
—  a  mere  gathering  of  representatives  of  the  people  — 
to  bestow  any  such  honor.  He  would  take  the  crown 
from  no  such  unauthorized  body,  saying  that  in  his 
opinion,  the  princes  of  Germany  alone  had  the  right 
to  offer  to  any  one  the  headship  of  the  empire. 

After  an  unsuccessful  attempt  at  founding  a  repre- 
sentative government,  the  National  Assembly  went 
home  discouraged  and  confounded.  Their  failure  can- 
not be  laid  to  their  lack  of  a  practical  plan.  The  Con- 
stitution they  prepared  was  the  work  of  high-minded 
and  able  men,  who  believed  the  German  people  capable 
of  working  out  a  government  on  the  principle  of  fair- 
dealing  to  all  men.  Its  failure  may  be  laid  rather  to 
the  lack  of  an  army  and  executive  machinery  of  gov- 
ernment with  which  to  carry  forward  the  decision  of 
the  Convention.  Many  of  the  men  of  the  Frankfort 
Assembly  lost  heart,  and  despairing  of  success  in  their 
native  land,  left  Germany  for  other  lands,  great  num- 
bers of  them  coming  to  the  United  States. 

A  short  time  after  the  Frankfort  Assembly  broke  up, 
Frederick  VTilliam  IV,  frightened  by  the  popular  un- 
rest, submitted  a  Constitution  of  his  own  for  the  gov- 
ernment of  Prussia,  although  he  had  once  indignantly 
said  that  he  would  never  allow  a  sheet  of  paper  to  make 
its  paragraphs  the  rulers.  He  still  held  that  the  sov- 
ereign power  resided  in  the  King,  but  he  admitted  that 
the  King  might,  if  he  wished,  allow  the  people  to  share 
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THE  GOVERNMENT  OF  GERMANY  219 

few  unimportant  changes,  remained  the  Constitution  of 
Prussia  up  to  1918.  Under  it  a  Prussian  parliament 
called  the  Landtag  was  established. 

RISE    OF    PRUSSIA 

Though  Austria  had  dominated  Germany,  she  was 
not  to  continue  to  exercise  supremacy ;  for  soon,  Prus- 
sia,  under  the  Chancellorship  of  Bismarck,  the  most 
skilful  and  powerful  statesmen  of  modern  times,  bc' 
gan  to  assume  a  dominating  position.  At  the  time  of 
the  advent  of  Bismarck  in  the  diplomatic  circles  of 
Europe,  Germany  was  composed  of  thirty-eight  states, 
each  with  an  independent  sovereign.  Among  these 
states  an  intricate  system  of  duties  for  exports  and 
imports  existed,  to  the  economic  detriment  of  all.  In 
1834,  a  "  Zollverein,"  or  tariff-union,  had  been  formed, 
the  effect  of  which  on  profits  had  been  marvelous.  This 
commercial  affiliation  was  the  forerunner  of  political 
union  and  was  a  long  step  toward  a  real  unification  of 
the  Germans. 

In  1861,  William  I  became  King  of  Prussia  and  set 
out  as  a  practical  ruler.  He  so  organized  the  army 
that  there  were  soon,  either  in  active  service  or  in  the 
reserves,  four  hundred  thousand  men  ready  at  the  call 
to  arms.  William  I  lengthened  the  compulsory  term 
for  active  service  to  four  years  and  the  reserve  term 
to  three  years,  so  that  seven  of  the  best  years  of  all 
German  men  were  devoted  to  military  training.  This 
system  was  so  effective  in  making  a  great  army  that  it 
became  the  basis  of  military  service  in  nearly  all  Eu- 
ropean countries. 

BISMARCK    MAKES    A    GERMAN    EMPIRE 

William  I  had  hardly  come  to  the  throne  when 
he  got  into  a  deadlock  with  the  Landtag  over  army 


220  AMERICAN  DEMOCRACY 

appropriations,  which  needed  to  be  greatly  increased 
to  enable  him  to  carry  out  his  plans.  In  this  strait 
the  King  appointed  Bismarck  Chancellor.  Bismarck 
was  a  Junker,  that  is,  a  landed  gentleman  of  East 
Prussia ;  he  was  an  intolerant  aristocrat,  but  he  was 
bent  on  making  a  united  Germany,  with  Prussia  as  the 
controlling  state.  With  this  end  in  view,  the  new  Chan- 
cellor began  to  increase  the  power  and  prestige  of 
Prussia.  As  the  first  necessary  step,  he  humiliated' 
Austria  in  a  war  which  he  provoked  in  1866.  This 
done,  he  cut  off  all  political  connection  with  that  coun- 
try. By  a  war  of  conquest  which  he  made  to  seem  a 
war  of  defense,  he  annexed  not  only  Danish  Schleswig- 
Holstein,  but  Hanover,  Hesse-Cassel,  Nassau,  and  the 
free  city  of  Frankfort.  The  people  of  these  territories 
were  thenceforward  to  be  Prussians  in  language,  cus- 
toms, and  law,  although  none  of  the  annexed  communi- 
ties had  been  consulted  as  to  their  wishes. 

In  1867,  the  time  being  ripe  for  such  a  move,  William 
I  and  the  rulers  of  the  North  German  States  formed  the 
North  German  Federation  under  the  guiding  hand  of 
Bismarck.  After  the  sovereigns  had  agreed  upon  a 
constitution,  it  was  submitted  to  a  provisional  Reichs- 
tag elected  by  the  people  of  all  the  states.  This  as- 
sembly did  little  but  ratify  the  proposed  scheme  of 
government;  when  the  majority  disagreed  with  Bis- 
marck, the  majority  yielded.  For  instance,  the  Reichs- 
tag voted  for  a  responsible  ministry  and  payment  of 
members,  but,  as  Bismarck  was  opposed  to  both  ideas, 
neither  principle  was  put  into  the  Constitution. 

The  North  German  Federation  was  so  planned  that 
when  the  southern  states  —  Bavaria,  Wurtemberg, 
Baden,  and  South  Hesse  —  knocked  at  the  door  for  ad- 
mission  into    the   German    union   at   the   close   of   the 


THE  GOVERNMENT  OF  GERMANY  221 

Franco-Prussian  War  of  1871,  they  were  accommo- 
dated without  any  change  in  the  original  document. 
The  door  opened  easily  and  the  North  German  Feder- 
ation became  the  German  Empire,  with  Bismarck's 
Constitution  as  the  fundamental  law  and  the  King  of 
Prussia  as  the  Kaiser  of  Germany  in  perpetuity. 

The  contrast  between  the  origin  of  the  German 
Constitution  and  the  origin  of  the  Constitution  of  the 
United  States  of  America  is  striking.  The  American 
document  was  drawn  up  by  men  tried  in  war  and  in 
peace  and  skilled  in  the  affairs  of  practical  government ; 
it  was  in  the  main  based  on  a  series  of  compromises 
made  to  satisfy  the  needs  and  wishes  of  the  people  of 
divergent  occupations  and  modes  of  living.  It  was 
wrought  out  by  the  best  minds  of  America  and  before 
being  put  into  operation,  it  was  sent  back  to  the  states 
for  ratification.  During  the  period  of  ratification,  it 
underwent  the  keen  and  pitiless  criticism  both  of  men 
who  had  worked  to  frame  it  and  of  men  who  sought  to 
destroy  it.  After  much  public  discussion  it  was  ac- 
cepted and  set  up  as  the  fundamental  law  of  the  United 
States  of  America.  All  this  happened  eighty  years  be- 
fore the  formation  of  the  North  German  Confederation. 

THE    GERMAN    GOVERNMENT 

The  government  of  Germany  up  to  the  last  months  of 
1918  was  a  federation  like  that  of  the  United  States, 
consisting  of  twenty-five  states  and  one  imperial  terri- 
tory, Alsace-Lorraine.  There  were  four  kingdoms, 
eighteen  duchies,  and  three  republics  —  the  city  states 
of  Bremen,  Hamburg,  and  Liibeck.  Whoever  was 
King  of  Prussia  was  the  Kaiser  of  Germany.  The  laws 
of  the  realm  were  made  by  two  bodies,  a  sort  of  King's 
council,  composed  of  delegates  appointed  by  the  princes 


222  AMERICAN  DEMOCRACY 

of  the  various  states  and  called  the  "  Bundesrat,"  and 
an  assembly  elected  by  the  people,  called  the  "  Reichs- 
tag." All  taxes  were  voted  by  the  Reichstag.  The 
chief  minister  of  the  realm,  the  "Chancellor,"  was  ap- 
pointed by  the  Kaiser  and  presided  over  the  Bundes- 
rat. 

At  a  casual  glance  this  may  seem  a  democratic  ar- 
rangement, resembling  in  many  ways  the  scheme  of 
government  which  holds  in  the  United  States  of  Amer- 
ica. In  reality  it  was  far  from  democratic  in  its  in- 
tent or  in  its  working  out.  The  Bundesrat,  as  inter- 
preted by  Bismarck  and  apparently  accepted  by  the 
Germans,  was  the  seat  of  imperial  sovereignty.  In 
other  words  the  Government  of  Germany  derived  its 
"  just  "  powers  from  a  council  made  up  of  representa- 
tives of  the  princes  of  the  sovereign  states  which  com- 
posed Germany.  Its  members  were  instructed  dele- 
gates appointed  for  life  by  the  sovereign  princes  of 
the  various  states  of  Germany  to  represent  their  inter- 
ests in  the  empire. 

Unlike  the  usage  of  the  Senate  of  the  United  States, 
the  German  states  did  not  have  equal  votes.  There  were 
fifty-eight  members.  Of  these  Prussia  had  seventeen; 
no  other  state  had  more  than  six,  while  seventeen  had 
only  one  vote.  The  delegates  for  each  state  voted  as 
a  solid  block  and  as  directed  by  the  king  of  that  state. 
Fourteen  votes  against  any  measure  vetoed  it.  Thus  it 
is  easy  to  see  that  the  controlling  power  of  the 
Bundesrat  was  lodged  in  the  King  of  Prussia.  All  laws 
for  the  Empire  were  initiated  in  the  Bundesrat  be- 
cause, as  the  Reichstag  of  itself  was  powerless  to  make 
laws  over  the  veto  of  the  larger  body,  it  was  useless  for 
the  popular  assembly  to  attempt  to  force  measures. 
The  Chancellor,  the  vital  center  of  the  imperial  admin- 


THE  GOVEMNMENT  OF  GERMANY  223 

istration,  was  responsible  to  the  Emperor  who  need 
give  an  account  of  his  acts  to  nobody.  Thus  the  Chan- 
cellor was  "  the  responsible  proxy  of  an  irresponsible 
emperor.'*  All  the  debates  of  the  Bundesrat  being 
secret,  no  part  of  its  proceedings  ever  went  into  the 
newspapers,  and  consequently  little  was  heard  of  it. 
It  did  its  work  quietly  and  effectively. 

While  nominally  the  Emperor  had  no  veto  on  the 
proceedings  of  the  Bundesrat,  he  possessed  the  sub- 
stance of  that  power  for  he  controlled  at  least  twenty 
votes,  whereas  fourteen  could  hold  back  any  measure. 
The  Germans  were  in  the  habit  of  calling  this  method 
of  conducting  the  business  of  the  nation  a  "  govern- 
ment by  experts." 

The  Reichstag  consisted  of  three  hundred  ninety- 
seven  five-year  members,  elected  by  men  over  twenty-five 
years  of  age.  This  body  voted  the  appropriations  pro- 
posed by  the  Bundesrat,  but,  failing  to  approve  the 
proposed  budget,  the  taxes  of  the  year  previous  were 
continued  until  new  ones  were  granted.  The  imperial 
treasury  therefore  was  never  in  danger  of  becoming 
empty.  The  Reichstag  had  no  control  over  the  Chan- 
cellor ;  its  disapproval,  expressed  by  a  vote  of  "  lack  of 
confidence,"  could  not  shake  him  from  his  seat.  It  was 
rendered  still  less  useful  by  the  distribution  of  repre- 
sentation which  had  not  been  changed  since  1870. 
Such  rapidly  increasing  cities  as  Berlin  kept  their  1870 
representation,  as  did  East  Prussia  where  the  popula- 
tion was  for  a  long  time  unchanged. 

The  Emperor  appointed  the  Chancellor  from  among 
the  Prussian  delegates  to  the  Bundesrat ;  the  Chancellor 
in  turn  appointed  all  the  heads  of  bureaus  and  minis- 
ters. The  Emperor  could  at  his  pleasure  dissolve  the 
Reichstag;  he  was  commander-in-chief  of  the  army  and 


224  AMERICAN  DEMOCRACY 

navy ;  he  could  declare  a  war  of  defense.  Under  the 
Bismarckian  policy,  it  may  be  added  that  no  Ger- 
man war  ever  was  "  offensive."  No  machinery  existed 
whereby  the  Emperor  of  Germany  could  be  impeached, 
as  he  owed  his  position  to  God  alone.  At  his  corona- 
tion William  I  said,  as  he  placed  the  crown  upon  his 
own  head,  "  The  crown  comes  only  from  God,  and  I 
have  received  it  from  his  hands." 

The  Emperor  had  almost  absolute  control  over  for- 
eign relations ;  he  could  make  or  break  foreign  treaties 
without  the  slightest  knowledge  of  the  Reichstag.  In 
short,  by  masterly  state-craft,  Bismarck  succeeded  in 
establishing  a  seemingly  constitutional  government 
which  in  reality  gave  absolute  power  to  the  man  who 
was  at  one  and  the  same  time  the  King  of  Prussia  and 
Emperor  of  Germany.  Every  suggestion  of  real  par- 
liamentary control  was  avoided;  the  Reichstag  had  no 
hold  on  the  government ;  it  had  only  the  negative  power 
of  refusing  to  pass  laws. 

THE    KINGDOM    OF    PRUSSIA 

The  real  source  of  the  Emperor's  great  power  lay  in 
his  control  of  Prussia,  the  very  heart  of  the  German 
Empire.  Prussia  contained  two-thirds  of  the  terri- 
tory and  of  the  population  of  Germany.  The  Land- 
tag of  Prussia  consisted  of  two  chambers  —  the  house 
of  Lords  (Herrenhaus)  and  the  house  of  Representa- 
tives (Abgeordnetenhaus).  The  "  governments,"  that 
is,  the  King,  over  whom  the  legislature  had  no  control, 
initiated  all  the  proposed  laws.  The  composition  of 
the  Herrenhaus  was  left  to  royal  ordinances.  If  the 
Herrenhaus  should  oppose  the  measures  of  the  King, 
he  could  create  new  lords  to  carry  his  plans  through. 
The  Herrenhaus  had   a   veto   power  over  the  legisla- 


THE  GOVERNMENT  OF  GERMANY  225 

tion  approved  by  the  "  popular  "  house ;  the  King  an 
absolute  veto  on  any  measure  passed  by  the  entire 
Landtag. 

The  people  of  Prussia  were  granted  universal  man- 
hood suffrage  with  peculiar  conditions  attached  to  the 
privilege.  Every  man  over  twenty-five  had  the  right 
to  vote  for  the  members  of  the  lower  house.  But  all 
taxable  property,  all  the  material  wealth  of  the  Prus- 
sians —  land,  money,  and  personal  possessions  —  was 
put  into  one  great  heap  and  divided  into  three  even 
parts.  The  combined  owners  of  each  part  paid  an 
equal  amount  of  taxes  and  were  given  an  equal  number 
of  delegates  in  the  house  of  representatives.  Thus  the 
great  land  owners,  four  per  cent,  of  the  whole  Prussian 
population,  paid  one-third  of  the  taxes  and  elected 
one- third  of  the  legislators;  the  wealthy  middle  class, 
fourteen  per  cent,  of  the  population,  paid  one-third  of 
the  taxes  and  elected  the  second  third ;  and  finally,  the 
working  classes,  eighty-two  per  cent,  of  the  people,  paid 
the  remaining  third  of  the  taxes  and  elected  the  remain- 
ing one-third  of  the  legislators.  This  was  the  Prus- 
sian system  of  electing  a  "popular"  body.  To  this 
was  added  one  last  straw  for  breaking  down  the  rule 
of  the  people  —  the  method  of  voting  was  by  the  liv- 
ing voice,  because,  stated  the  law,  "  nothing  is  so  in- 
dispensable to  a  free  people  as  the  courage  to  express 
one's  conviction  publicly." 

How  such  an  absolute  government  as  that  of  the  Ger- 
man Empire  grew  up  and  continued  to  exist  in  the 
midst  of  the  growing  democracy  of  Western  Europe 
is  a  question  that  might  well  be  asked.  A  direct  and 
simple  answer  is  not  easily  given  because  the  question 
involves  a  very  complex,  many-angled  series  of  situa- 
tions.    In  Germany,  as  in  every  other  country,  the  ac- 


226  AMERICAN  DEMOCRACY 

tual  process  of  government  is  hard  to  understand.  It 
refuses  to  be  put  into  a  set  of  rules.  Autocratic  Ger- 
many had  its  decidedly  democratic  features ;  demo- 
cratic France  is  by  no  means  a  true  democracy;  the 
United  States  of  America  has  its  autocratic  economic 
system.  Though  there  doubtless  were  many  causes  that 
contributed  to  establishing  the  autocratic  militaristic 
system  of  Germany,  there  is  no  doubt  that  Bismarck 
and  the  Bismarckian  policy  had  more  influence  than  all 
other  causes  put  together. 

After  the  days  of  the  French  Revolution,  after  the 
scourge  of  Napoleon,  the  spirit  of  nationality  coupled 
with  the  spirit  of  growing  democracy  animated  the  Ger- 
man people,  who  longed  for  a  united  Germany  with 
liberal  institutions.  But  when  the  Congress  of  Vienna 
made  the  settlement  of  Germany  under  the  Federal  Con- 
stitution, the  spirit  of  liberty  was  thwarted.  Yet  in 
spite  of  this  check,  the  movement  toward  constitutional 
government  went  steadily  on.  By  1848  the  universities 
of  Germany  had  united  the  German  people  in  thought 
and  ideals,  and  South  Germany  was  ready  for  changes 
directed  by  popular  will.  But  militaristic  Prussia 
barred  the  way  to  unity  on  a  liberal  basis,  though  even 
Prussia  might  have  been  converted  to  the  movement 
that  was  sweeping  western  Europe  had  not  Bismarck 
come  into  power  at  the  time  that  he  did.  Just  when 
William  I  of  Prussia  was  ready  to  yield  to  the  pressure 
of  the  Landtag,  Bismarck,  as  Chancellor,  took  the  reins 
of  government. 

MILITARISM 

The  Iron  Chancellor  came  to  his  affice  with  a  defi- 
nite end  in  view.  He,  as  well  as  the  German  progres- 
sives, wished  to  see  a  strong  united  Germany,  but  he 


THE  GOVERNMENT  OF  GERMANY         227 

scorned  the  popular  will  and  refused  to  be  led  by  "  un- 
instructed  maiorities."  For  a  number  of  years  he 
played  a  desperate  game  with  the  public  opinion  of 
Prussia  and  all  Germany  against  him.  But  he  stuck 
to  the  task  he  had  set  himself.  His  plan  was  to  unite 
Germany  with  Prussia,  not  Austria,  as  the  controlling 
state.  The  Prussian  army  was  to  be  the  mighty  in- 
strument by  which  the  union  was  to  be  effected.  Bis^ 
march  never  lost  sight  of  this  clearly  defined  purpose. 
By  means  of  successive  and  successful  wars  waged  in 
alleged  defense  of  the  Fatherland,  he  brought  all  the 
states  of  Germany  under  one  banner  with  the  King 
of  Prussia  as  the  "  War  Lord  "  and  Kaiser  of  the  Ger- 
man Empire.  Bismarck  himself  said  that  the  liberals 
paved  the  way  for  German  unity,  but  that  the  Prus- 
sian army  by  force  of  arms  made  German  unity  a  real- 
ity. It  was  the  pride  and  exultation  of  victory  that 
brought  the  great  mass  of  the  German  people  to  ac- 
cept Bismarck's  leadership. 

From  the  time  of  the  establishment  of  the  German 
Empire,  the  German  Government  became  fixed  on  the 
foundations  laid  by  Bismarck  as  an  autocratic  gov- 
ernment supported  by  a  great  army.  Bismarck  made 
Germany  a  united  nation  on  his  own  terms  and  by 
methods  that  he  conceived  to  be  justifiable.  He  de- 
clared his  belief  that  the  unity  of  Germany  was  not  to 
be  brought  about  by  parliamentary  debates  but  by 
"  blood  and  iron."  He  believed  that  the  will  power  of 
the  nation  would  not  be  strengthened  by  strife  between 
ruler  and  people  but  "  by  the  clash  of  German  pride, 
honor,  and  ambition  against  the  foreign  power." 
When  Bismarck  found  it  possible,  he  worked  with  a 
majority;  when  the  majority  went  against  the  govern- 
ment, he  over-rode  it  or  worked  to  bring  about  a  new 


THE  GOVERNMENT  OF  GERMANY  229 

majority  which  would  support  his  policy.  And  Bis- 
marck's policy  succeeded.  Not  only  was  it  a  fact  that 
the  newly  nationalized  Germany  was  prospering  in  every 
way  —  materially,  intellectually,  and  scientifically  — 
but  it  soon  came  to  pass  that  under  Bismarck's  suc- 
cessors the  German  Empire  was  a  powerful  and  ag- 
gressive nation,  carrying  on  definite  plans  of  expansion 
in  all  parts  of  the  world. 

GERMAN  THEORY  OF  THE  STATE 

Out  of  national  pride,  fostered  by  undoubted  suc- 
cesses at  home  and  abroad  in  every  branch  of  endeavor, 
out  of  the  strength  and  power  exercised  by  the  Ger- 
man Government  there  grew  up  a  new  ideal  of  the  state. 
Bismarck's  principles  of  diplomacy  seemed  to  prove  the 
ideal  true.  In  this  view,  the  state  was  thought  to  be 
an  institution  apart  from  the  people,  who  existed  only 
to  make  the  state  strong.  The  state  came  first,  as 
individuals  received  their  rights  from  the  state. 

This  theory  seems  to  have  been  accepted  by  the  aris- 
tocratic and  militaristic  classes  of  society.  It  was  held 
and  taught  by  German  leaders  of  thought.  For  forty 
years  the  brilliant  von  Treitschke,  professor  of  history 
in  the  University  of  Berlin,  expounded  this  view  of  the 
state  to  the  young  men  who  crowded  to  his  lecture  room, 
until  it  became  familiar  and  seemed  plausible.  Accord- 
ing to  von  Treitschke,  the  state,  being  above  the  people, 
is  bound  by  no  moral  law ;  its  first  duty  is  to  be  power- 
ful. A  state  has  no  right  to  exist  unless  it  can  main- 
tain itself  against  foreign  aggression.  Self-determina- 
tion and  self-direction  could  never  be  permanently  ac- 
corded to  weak  and  insignificant  nations,  no  matter  how 
strong  might  be  their  claims  to  nationhood.  Von 
Treitschke  believed  that  the  lives  of  nations  were  guided 


THE  GOVERNMENT  OF  GERMANY         231 

by  the  principle  that  might  makes  right,  that  in  the 
struggle  for  existence  the  weakest  must  of  necessity 
go  to  the  wall.  Bismarck  himself  had  held  that  good- 
will, which  he  conceded  to  be  everything  in  matters  of 
morality,  was  of  little  or  no  importance  in  the  life  of 
a  nation ;  that  ability  was  the  only  thing  that  counted. 

As  in  this  view  the  first  duty  of  the  state  is  to  be 
powerful,  it  followed  that  every  citizen  must  share  in 
making  the  state  irresistible  in  war.  Universal  military 
service  was  necessary.  To  be  good  soldiers,  citizens 
must  be  physically  strong,  they  must  be  protected  in  life 
and  limb.  Hence  followed  much  legislation  to  insure 
safety  of  person  and  compensation  for  accidents. 
Moreover  a  state  founded  on  such  principles  must  re- 
move its  citizens  from  the  fear  of  an  unprovided  old 
age;  hence  there  were  instituted  old-age  pensions  and 
state  insurance. 

To  make  the  Germans  the  very  best  feeders  of  the 
state,  an  eff(?ctive  system  of  government  control  of  edu- 
cation, of  politics,  and  of  agricultural  development  was 
put  into  operation.  Every  human  being  in  the  entire 
country  was  card-catalogued ;  every  industry,  every  oc- 
cupation, every  skill  was  listed,  rated,  and  reduced  to 
a  matter  of  figures ;  a  minute  summary  of  the  dimen- 
sions of  every  house  was  in  the  hands  of  the  govern- 
ment. The  Germans  lived  and  breathed  to  order  and 
by  orders,  thus  exemplifying  the  fact  that  routine  is 
the  only  safeguard  of  the  people  under  a  perfect  autoc- 
racy. In  a  word,  efficiency  became  the  German  gov- 
ernmental and  household  god. 

In  searching  for  the  reasons  explaining  why  Germany 
kept  her  undemocratic  form  of  government  while  the 
rest  of  Europe  was  moving  toward  democracy.,  three 
facts  merit  consideration.     In  the  first  place,  G'^rmany 


232  AMERICAN  DEMOCRACY 

had  become  a  united  nation  under  the  lead  of  miUtaris- 
tic,  autocratic  Prussia,  and  because  the  Prussian  army 
had  made  Germany  a  nation,  the  army  became  the  visi- 
ble expression  of  the  German  national  spirit.  As  may 
readily  be  seen,  the  army  was  anything  but  helpful  to 
the  growth  of  democracy.  In  every  German  home  a 
living  unit  of  the  German  army  was  seated  at  the  hearth- 
stone. Fathers  and  sons  were  German  soldiers,  either 
active  or  in  the  reserve,  and  they  were  imbued  with  the 
necessity  of  a  great  army  of  "  defense." 

Moreover,  the  new  German  nation  was  prosperous  al- 
most beyond  belief.  The  country  was  rapidly  growing 
rich.  The  government  helped  in  every  possible  way, 
even  giving  financial  aid  to  industries  that  were  in 
need  of  funds.  German  schools,  compulsory  and  regu- 
lated by  government,  were  considered  the  best  in  the 
world.  Germany  took  the  lead  in  science,  a  degree 
from  a  German  University  being  a  coveted  prize. 

DEMOCRACY    IN    GERMANY 

Finally,  the  demands  of  democracy  were  partially 
satisfied  by  the  exercise  of  local  self-government.  In 
municipalities  and  towns,  the  people  had  the  control- 
ling voice.  German  towns  were  models  for  imitation 
by  the  whole  world.  From  the  cities  of  the  United 
States,  of  England,  of  South  America,  of  Australia, 
came  junketing  aldermen  to  study  German  municipal 
methods  that  they  might  imitate  them  in  their  home 
cities. 

As  a  matter  of  fact,  the  German  Government  was  not 
so  undemocratic  as  one  would  have  expected  to  find  it 
under  the  bureaucratic  system  of  the  Empire.  The 
people  of  Germany  were  listened  to  by  the  government 
and  public  opinion  had  great  influence  in  determining 


THE  GOVERNMENT  OF  GERMANY         233 

general  policies.  A  member  of  the  Reichstag  could 
openly  speak  his  mind  in  the  sanctuary  of  that  assem- 
bly. As  a  consequence,  the  Reichstag  has  been  the 
forum  of  many  varying  opinions  and  the  utterances  of 
its  members  have  influenced  the  political  parties  of 
Germany  deeply.  Even  Bismarck  had  to  yield  when  he 
found  that  he  could  not  stamp  out  the  Catholics,  and  to 
get  the  best  of  the  Socialists  he  had  to  rob  them  of  their 
thunder  by  instituting  the  very  reforms  they  advocated. 
This  brief  discussion  of  the  German  Government  and 
ideal  should  help  Americans  to  understand  more  clearly 
the  democratic  ideal  on  which  the  government  of  the 
United  States  is  founded.  Our  country  fought  to 
overthrow  autocracy ;  to  strike  a  death  blow  at  mil- 
itarism in  the  hands  of  an  absolute  ruler.  These  pur- 
poses were  acclaimed  again  and  again  by  the  Allies 
as  well  as  by  the  United  States.  If  the  world  has  been 
made  safe  for  democracy^  the  price  was  not  too  great. 
One  thing  is  sure,  the  world  will  never  stay  safe  for 
democracy  unless  the  people  themselves  are  deter- 
mined that  it  shall  be  so. 


CHAPTER  XII 

REVOLUTIONARY   THEORIES   OF   GOVERN- 
MExNT  AND  ECONOMIC  RELATIONS 

Here  we  are  not  afraid  to  follow  truth  wherever  it  may  lead 
nor  to  tolerate  error  so  long  as  reason  is  left  free  to  combat  it. 

Thomas  Jefferson. 
Truth  is  the  proper  and  sufficient  antagonist  to  error,  and  has 
nothing  to  fear  from  the  conflict  unless  by  human  interposition 
disarmed  of  her  natural  weapons,  free  argument  and  debate; 
error  ceasing  to  be  dangerous  when  it  is  permitted  freely  to  con- 
tradict them. 

Thomas  Jefferson  (Statute  of  Religious  Freedom). 

If  it  is  necessary  to  study  the  former  autocratic  gov- 
ernment of  Germany  in  order  to  get  a  clear  notion  of 
the  principles  underlying  the  government  of  the  United 
States,  it  is  vastly  more  important,  for  the  same  rea- 
son, to  examine  the  revolutionary  theories  of  govern- 
ment and  economic  relations  which  advocate  the  entire 
reconstruction  of  the  social  and  political  order  as  a 
means  of  correcting  the  injustices  and  inconsistencies 
that  exist  in  society.  For,  while  the  autocracy  of  Ger- 
many is  in  all  probability  permanently  overthrown,  the 
standards  of  revolution  are  attracting  many  adherents 
and  are  influencing  the  thought  of  the  world. 

All  the  revolutionary  theories  that  are  agitating  the 
world  to-day  look  to  the  ages-old  idea  of  communism 
as  the  cure  for  existing  evils.  Communism  is  that  sys- 
tem of  economics  which  advocates  the  abolition  of  pri- 
vate property  and  the  introduction  of  common  owner- 
ship of  goods,  at  least  as  far  as  capital  or  the  means  of 

234 


REVOLUTIONARY  THEORIES  235 

production  is  concerned.  This  basic  theory  is  the 
source  of  an  innumerable  variety  of  plans,  some  of  them 
mild,  some  extremely  drastic,  for  the  regeneration  of  so- 
ciety and  government  so  that  exact  justice  will  be  real- 
ized by  everybody. 

From  the  most  ancient  times  there  have  been  set  up, 
at  intervals,  certain  partially  communistic  systems  and 
institutions.  For  instance  in  Jerusalem,  near  the  be- 
ginning of  the  Christian  era,  a  voluntary  Christian 
communism,  based  on  true  charity  and  equality,  was 
undertaken.  But  none  of  these  attempts  long  suc- 
ceeded, because  they  proved  unworkable,  and  for  the 
purposes  of  the  American  of  to-day  their  consideration 
may  be  disregarded.  It  is  far  more  important  now  to 
center  attention  on  the  modern  revolutionary  theories 
that  have  their  roots  in  the  great  development  of  in- 
dustry which  began  in  the  latter  part  of  the  eighteenth 
century.  At  that  time  a  movement  started  which  re- 
sulted in  the  division  of  society  into  the  ranks  of  capital 
and  labor,  or,  as  the  social-revolutionary  puts  it,  the 
"  proletariat,"  the  homeless,  floating  population  of 
our  great  cities;  and  the  "bourgeoisie,"  the  capitalists 
who  have  worked  up  from  what  was  formerly  the  middle 
class  to  a  controlling  position  in  the  economic  world. 

Among  the  most  active  present-day  revolutionary 
movements  are  Socialism  and  Anarchism.  Other  mani- 
festations variously  called  Bolshevism,  Syndicalism, 
and  I.  W.  Wism  are  the  offspring  of  the  one  or  the  other 
or  of  both  of  these  parent  theories.  The  task  of  gain- 
ing an  understanding  of  the  confused  and  confusing 
masses  of  written  material  that  have  to  do  with  the  the- 
ory and  practice  of  these  revolutionary  principles  is  not 
an  easy  one.  One  may  read  books  by  socialists  and  an- 
archists, by  anti-revolutionists  and  middle-of-the-road 


236  AMERICAN  DEMOCRACY 

writers,  and  yet  remain  in  the  outer  dark.  In  the 
words  of  an  ardent  American  revolutionist,  there  **  is 
the  most  difficult  confusion  of  bedfellows  to  disentangle 
limb  from  limb,  smooth  out  and  lay  on  their  pillows  so 
that  one  can  see  them."  But  as  revolutionists  are  all 
about  us,  it  becomes  an  imperative  duty  to  at- 
tempt to  find  out  something  of  the  beliefs,  aims,  and  pro- 
grams of  the  various  groups  that  are  in  general  terms 
called  by  others  and  by  themselves  "  revolutionary." 

SOCIALISM 

Socialism  first  appeared  about  one  hundred  years 
ago  when  the  wretched  condition  of  the  working  classes, 
caused  by  the  invention  of  machinery  and  consequent 
introduction  of  the  factory  system,  called  for  measures 
of  relief.  The  first  socialists  are  not  considered  really 
such  by  their  modern  offspring,  who  characterize  the 
early  ideals  and  the  attempts  at  realizing  them  in  actual 
practice  as  unscientific  and  "  Utopian," —  in  fact,  as 
thoroughly  unpractical  and  silly.  They  look  upon 
such  persons  as  Robert  Owens,  the  rich  English  manu- 
facturer, who,  in  order  to  work  out  his  communistic 
theories,  founded  an  unsuccessful  cooperative  colony  at 
New  Harmony,  Indiana,  as  benevolent  but  hopelessly 
visionary. 

Modern  or  "  scientific  "  Socialism  was  founded  by 
Karl  Marx  (1818-1883)  who,  though  a  native  of  Ger- 
many, spent  most  of  his  life  in  England,  where  he  wrote 
"  Das  Capital  "  (Capital),  the  bible  of  socialism.  The 
cardinal  doctrines  of  modern  socialism  appear  in  the 
"  Communistic  Manifesto  "  which  Marx  and  his  friend 
Engles  published  in  1848,  the  year  of  European  revolu- 
tions. This  "  Communistic  Manifesto,"  one  of  the 
great  documents  of  the  revolutionists,  was  destined  to 


REVOLUTIONARY  THEORIES  237 

become  the  creed  of  the  greatest  international  political 
movement  the  world  had  ever  seen. 

Marx  based  his  theory  of  Socialism  on  two  main  "  dis- 
coveries — "  the  "  materialistic  conception  of  history  " 
and  the  secret  of  the  growth  of  capital  by  means  of 
"  surplus-value."  Through  these  two  "  discoveries," 
according  to  the  disciples  of  Marx,  socialism  became 
a  "  science." 

"  The  materialistic  conception  of  history  "  is  some- 
times called  "  economic  determinism."  These  two 
mouth-filling  phrases,  as  well  as  some  others,  must  be 
chewed  and  digested  if  one  is  to  understand  what  the 
socialists  in  our  midst  are  talking  and  writing  about. 
By  the  "  materialistic  conception  of  history "  Marx 
meant  that  the  entire  history  of  mankind  with  its  politi- 
cal, religious,  and  moral  phenomena  is  but  a  grand 
process  of  evolution,  wherein  nothing  is  stable  except 
the  constant  law  of  perpetual  change.  All  progress, 
he  argued,  has  come  by  means  of  class  wars  waged  for 
the  purpose  of  gaining  clothing  to  wear,  a  place  to 
dwell,  and,  above  all,  food  to  eat.  That  is,  Marx  held 
that  no  really  important  changes  were  effected  by  such 
things  as  the  coming  of  Christ,  or  the  spread  of  Moham- 
medanism, the  Crusades,  the  Renaissance,  the  Reforma- 
tion, the  discovery  of  America,  the  invention  of  print- 
ing, or  by  the  lives  of  any  of  the  great  leaders  in  art, 
science,  invention,  or  religion. 

In  other  words  every  change  in  the  history  of  the 
world  was  caused  by  the  struggle  for  existence.  Of 
course  such  a  theory  as  this  throws  overboard  all  moral 
laws  and  all  ties  and  duties  that  civilized  men  have  con- 
sidered as  just  and  binding.  According  to  this  system 
of  philosophy,  the  human  race  must  continue  in  the 
direction  indicated  by  Marx,  because  the  onward  move- 


238  AMERICAN  DEMOCRACY 

ment  of  evolution  cannot  be  controlled.  The  world, 
said  Marx,  has  passed  through  successive  class  strug- 
gles;  the  first,  between  master  and  slave;  the  second  be- 
tween serf  and  lord  or  king;  and  the  third,  which  is 
going  on  to-day,  between  the  capitalist  and  the  laborer. 

The  other  "  discovery  "  that  helped  to  make  social- 
ism a  "  science,"  and  which  Marx  called  "  surplus 
value,"  may  be  explained  thus  then  put  into  simple 
words :  A  man  who  works  in  a  factory  at  four  dollars  a 
day  makes  in  four  hours  a  chair  out  of  materials  that 
cost  two  dollars.  The  chair  is  sold  for  eight  or  twelve 
dollars.  The  employer  gets  the  difference  between  the 
price  he  puts  on  the  chair  and  the  money  paid  for 
materials  and  labor  and  thus  speedily  grows  rich.  The 
more  men  he  employs,  the  richer  he  gets  on  the  "  surplus 
value  "  of  the  men's  time.  Marx  held  that  this  "  sur- 
plus value  "  belonged  to  the  man  who  by  his  labor  made 
the  increase  in  capital.  This  rather  crude  illustration 
will  help  to  show  what  is  meant  by  the  term,  "  surplus 
value,"  that  one  is  bound  to  hear  from  the  lips  and  see 
in  the  writings  of  socialists. 

Marx  held  that  all  wealth  comes  from  labor,  and  as 
labor  produces  the  capital  necessary  to  establish  fac- 
tories, railroads,  and  other  sources  of  wealth,  he  would 
have  labor  own  all  capital  employed  in  producing 
wealth.  Marx's  scheme  called  for  a  complete  reorgani- 
zation of  the  world.  The  family  was  attacked  as  the 
basis  of  economic  society ;  marriage  was  held  up  as  an 
institution  of  oppression  to  women,  who  should  be  ruled 
in  their  marriage  relation  by  love  alone;  the  relation  be- 
tween husband  and  wife  was  to  cease  as  soon  as  love 
between  them  had  departed;  children  were  to  become 
wards  of  the  state;  mutual  obligations  of  parents  and 
children  were  to  be  wiped  out ;  the  Church  was  held  up 


REVOLUTIONARY  THEORIES  239 

as  the  bulwark  of  oppression,  which  must  be  swept 
away  with  other  out-worn  institutions  of  society. 
These  changes  were  to  be  brought  about  by  force.         ^ 

The  Manifesto  ends  with  these  words  of  unmistak- 
able meaning:  "The  Communists  disdain  to  conceal 
their  views  and  aims,  they  openly  declare  that  their  ends 
can  be  obtained  only  by  the  forcible  overthrow  of  all 
existing  social  conditions.  Let  the  ruling  classes  trem- 
ble at  the  Communistic  revolution.  The  proletarians 
have  nothing  to  lose  but  their  chains.  They  have  a 
world  to  win.     Working  men  of  all  countries,  unite !  " 

Marx  and  his  .followers  held  up  a  picture  of  the  time 
to  come  when  the  idle  would  be  set  to  labor,  when  no 
one  would  become  rich  at  the  cost  of  his  neighbor,  and 
when  every  person  would  have  an  opportunity  to  de- 
velop the  best  that  was  in  him.  There  would  be  no 
more  poverty,  no  more  disease,  no  more  crime  —  all  peo- 
ple would  live  together  in  harmony  and  brotherly  love. 
The  individual  counted  for  little,  the  mass  of  people  for 
everything.  In  his  social  scheme,  Marx  opposed  state- 
ownership  of  the  great  instruments  of  production  under 
the  existing  state ;  nothing  short  of  complete  abolition 
of  the  state  as  a  national  unit  could  bring  about  the 
reorganization  of  the  social  fabric  of  the  world  that  he 
aimed  at. 

By  Marx,  as  by  later  socialists,  the  idea  of  nation- 
alism and  patriotism  was  cried  down  as  a  merely  false 
sentiment  invented  by  capitalists  to  befool  the  common 
man  into  doing  capital's  bidding  and  keep  the  workers 
of  the  world  from  internationalism,  the  goal  toward 
which  the  world  was  inevitably  moving.  Marx  there- 
fore sought  to  realize  the  ideas  of  "  scientific  "  social- 
ism by  organizing  the  people  in  all  the  countries  of  the 
world    into    a    great    Socialistic    Society,    the    "  In- 


240  AMERICAN  DEMOCRACY 

ternational "  as  it  came  to  be  called.  But  though 
there  were  a  few  meetings  of  the  International,  it  has 
never  had  any  great  effect  on  the  movement  of  social- 
ism, which  has  developed  most  widely  within  national 
boundaries.  The  doctrines  of  Marx,  which  are  still 
held  in  the  main  by  the  great  body  of  socialists,  under- 
lie the  platform  of  all  socialistic  political  parties 
throughout  the  world,  though  they  have  not  all  been 
directed  along  the  same  lines. 

The  movement  that  most  closely  followed  Marx's  doc- 
trine was  developed  in  Germany  as  the  Social  Demo- 
crat party.  It  kept  its  original  Marxian  features, 
probably  because  of  the  limitations  placed  upon  all 
parties  in  Germany  by  the  undemocratic  government 
of  that  country.  Not  being  allowed  to  initiate  re- 
forms, it  remained  largely  a  theoretic  but  nevertheless 
forceful  protest  against  social  and  economic  injustices. 
In  the  other  European  countries.  Socialism  assumed  a 
modified  and  more  practical  form. 

Socialism,  as  generally  accepted  to-day,  is  an  ideal 
economic  system  in  which  industry  is  to  be  carried  on 
under  social  direction  and  for  the  benefit  of  society  as 
a  whole.  It  is  contrasted  with  the  competitive  regime 
of  existing  society.  Its  main  feature  is  "  collecti- 
vism," a  belief  in  bargaining  by  a  group  of  workers  in- 
stead of  by  individuals.  Socialism  implies  a  changed 
attitude  toward  property  holding.  Our  economic  life 
at  the  present  time  is  dominated  by  private  property, 
under  the  control  of  which  the  world's  work  is  carried 
on.  Socialists  hold  that  the  whole  process  must  be  re- 
versed so  that  by  the  substitution  of  collective  owner- 
ship of  the  great  material  instruments  of  production, 
the  world's  work  may  ultimately  be  carried  on  by  the 
agents  of  the  government. 


REVOLUTIONARY  THEORIES  241 

ANARCHISM 

Anarchism,  another  revolutionary  movement,  which 
had  for  its  sponsor  Pierre  Joseph  Proudhon  (1809- 
1865),  a  French  contemporary  of  Karl  Marx,  began 
about  the  same  time  as  did  Socialism.  Proudhon  held 
that  "  Property  is  theft."  He  summed  up  his  politi- 
cal creed  in  the  phrases,  "  No  more  parties,  no  more 
authority,  absolute  liberty  of  man  and  citizen." 

Proudhon  believed  in  using  peaceful  measures,  but 
not  so  Mikhail  Bakunin,  a  Russian  leader  of  An- 
archism (1814-1876).  In  1869  he  founded  the  Social 
Democratic  Alliance,  a  society  of  working  men  which 
affiliated  with  Marx's  International.  It  was  not  long 
until  Marx  and  Bakunin  separated  because  of  a  dif- 
ference as  to  method  of  bringing  about  a  revolution. 
Marx  would  secure  economic  reforms  through  political 
action,  and  peacefully,  while  Bakunin  would  improve  the 
lot  of  working  men  by  general  strikes  —  "  direct  ac- 
tion"— without  reference  to  government  and  with  the 
help  of  terrorism. 

The  spirit  of  Bakunin's  kind  of  Anarchism  is  well  in- 
dicated in  the  words  of  the  Revolutionary  Catechism 
written  by  a  friend  of  the  Russian  leader.  "  The  Rev- 
olutionary Anarchist  will  use  every  measure  and  every 
effort  to  increase  and  intensify  the  evils  and  sorrows, 
which  must  at  last  exhaust  the  patience  of  the  people 
and  excite  the  insurrection  en  masse.  The  only  revo- 
lution that  can  do  any  good  to  the  people  is  that 
which  utterly  annihilates  every  idea  of  the  state  and 
overthrows  all  traditions,  orders,  and  classes.  With 
this  end  in  view,  the  Revolutionary  anarchist  has  no 
intention  of  imposing  upon  the  people  any  organization 
coming  from  above.  The  future  organization  will  with- 
out doubt  proceed  from  the  movement  and  life  of  the 


242  AMERICAN  DEMOCRACY 

people;  but  that  is  the  business  of  future  generations. 
Our  task  is  destruction,  terrible,  total,  inexorable,  and 
universal." 

Anarchism  is  based  on  a  revolutionary  theory  that 
leads  in  an  almost  exactly  opposite  direction  to  Social- 
ism. Socialism  would  employ  a  democratic  government. 
Anarchism  would  employ  no  government  at  all.  All 
public  property  would  be  transferred  to  independent 
groups  of  working  men.  In  these  groups,  united  to 
each  other  by  mere  federation,  each  individual  would 
receive  the  entire  product  of  his  work.  All  governmen- 
tal functions  would  cease.  Absolute  liberty  and  equal- 
ity must  be  granted  to  individuals.  Anarchists  believe 
that  order  will  come  of  itself,  once  class  distinction  and 
the  domination  of  the  rich  are  abolished.  Every  one 
will  be  jealously  careful  of  the  right  of  each  individual 
to  do  as  he  pleases,  as  long  as  he  does  not  inflict  un- 
warranted injury  on  others.  The  only  social  bond 
will  be  the  "  free  contract  " ;  that  is,  each  individual 
may  of  his  own  free  will  enter  into  contract  with  other 
individuals  as  he  chooses  and  for  as  long  or  as  short  a 
term  as  he  may  desire.  The  state  will  have  no  power 
whatever  to  compel  any  man  to  keep  his  "  free  con- 
tract." 

To  bring  about  this  ideal  state,  the  anarchists  would 
not  employ  political  measures  as  socialists  for  the 
most  part  are  content  to  do.  Therefore  anarchists 
scorn  political  parties  and  parliamentary  discussions. 
They  appeal  principally  to  violence  and  force,  using 
explosives  and  other  instruments  of  destruction  as  the 
quickest  means  of  getting  rid  of  the  existing  social  or- 
der. As  to  what  will  happen  once  they  get  rid  of  the 
present  state  of  things,  anarchists  seem  to  be  not  very 
clear,  as  the  "  catechism  "  suggests. 


REVOLUTIONARY  THEORIES  243 

The  two  aspects  of  Anarchism  that  are  most  influen- 
tial to-day  are  Syndicalism  and  the  movement  that  goes 
under  the  name,  "  The  Industrial  Workers  of  the 
World,"  or  as  it  is  commonly  termed,  the  "  I.  W.  W." 

SYNDICALISM 

Syndicalism  is  a  form  of  revolutionary  labor  union- 
ism which  gets  its  name  from  the  general  term,  "  syndi- 
cat,^^  as  the  labor  union  is  called  in  France,  where  the 
movement  has  made  greatest  headway.  Syndicalism 
stands  opposed,  on  the  one  hand  to  the  old-line  trades- 
unionism  and  on  the  other  to  political  Socialism.  It 
aims  at  direct  seizure  of  all  industries  by  organized 
bodies  of  workers.  It  does  not  work  for  "  collecti- 
vism "  or  the  ownership  and  operation  of  industries  by 
the  state,  but,  as  far  as  can  be  learned,  it  proposes  to 
give  control  of  the  various  industries  to  the  people  who 
work  in  the  industry.  Thus  the  railway  employees 
would  own  and  run  the  railways ;  the  miners,  the  mines ; 
the  shoemakers'  union,  the  shoe  factories ;  and  so  on. 
Syndicalism  has  no  faith  in  reforms  through  the  ballot 
nor  in  armed  revolution.  It  seeks  first  to  tire  out  the 
capitalist  and  kill  his  interest  in  property  through  cur- 
tailment of  profit  by  means  of  strikes,  boycotts,  and 
destruction  of  machinery,  and  finally  to  overrun  the 
tottering  capitalistic  system  through  "  general  strikes." 

THE    INDUSTRIAL    WORKERS    OF    THE    WORLD 

The  Industrial  Workers  of  the  World  is  a  revolution- 
ary order  that  was  organized  in  Chicago  in  1904  by  a 
group  of  radical  labor  leaders.  Its  motives  and  pur- 
poses are  smiliar  to  those  of  Syndicalism,  but  it  stresses 
the  "  One  Big  Union  "  idea.  That  is,  the  I.  W.  W;  aims 
to  include  all  workmen  regardless  of  craft,  skill,  wages, 


244  AMERICAN  DEMOCRACY 

or  living  conditions.  The  character  of  the  I.  W.  W. 
organization  may  easily  be  seen  in  the  preamble  to  their 
platform :  "  The  working  class  and  the  employer  class 
have  nothing  in  common.  .  .  .  Between  these  two 
classes  a  struggle  must  go  on  until  the  workers  of  the 
world  organize  as  a  class,  take  possession  of  the  earth 
and  the  machinery  of  production,  and  abolish  the  wage 
system.  Instead  of  the  conservative  motto  '  A  fair 
day's  wage  for  a  fair  day's  work,'  we  must  inscribe  on 
our  banner,  '  Abolition  of  the  wage  system.'  " 

In  the  view  of  the  I.  W.  W.,  the  employer  has  become 
a  mere  useless  growth  upon  the  body  of  society;  no 
agreement  between  worker  and  employer  can  have  any 
binding  force ;  permanent  settlements  are  impossible. 
Therefore  the  I.  W.  W.  strikes  at  a  time  when  the  blow 
will  be  most  effective.  The  I.  W.  W.  does  not  approve 
of  destruction  of  the  factory  or  mine  as  he  hopes  to 
take  over  the  industrial  plant  in  good  working  order, 
but  when  the  rush  season  is  on,  or  when  the  time  limit 
of  contracts  is  up,  the  I.  W.  W.  calls  a  strike.  When 
all  injury  possible  at  the  time  is  done  to  the  employer, 
the  employees  go  back  to  work,  and  bide  their  time  for 
the  next  chance  to  cripple  their  natural  enemy.  Such 
methods  of  wearing  out  the  employer  are  characterized 
as  "  sabotage."  Sabotage  may  consist  in  throwing 
the  machinery  out  of  order,  the  using  of  wrong  mate- 
rials, systematic  loitering  at  work,  or  exposure  of  the 
employer's  trade  secrets. 

Since  the  war,  the  line  between  radical  Socialism  and 
the  I.  W.  W.  is  hard  to  draw.  Indeed  the  red  wing 
of  the  socialist  movement  gloHes  in  its  fellowship  with 
the  I.  W.  W.  and  loudly  stigmatizes  the  prominent 
leaders  of  political  socialism  as  "  yellow "  socialists. 
The  I.  W.  W.  point  to  the  Communistic  Manifesto  of 


REVOLUTIONARY  THEORIES  245 

Marx  as  being  in  harmony  with  their  aims  and  pur- 
poses. In  the  ranks  of  the  I.  W.  W.  there  is  no  place 
for  lawyers,  ministers,  and  other  middle-class  people. 
As  to  what  will  be  the  next  step  after  their  ends  are 
secured  they  take  no  care.  To  quote  a  recent  I.  W.  W. 
writer :  ..."  In  its  final  conception  of  the  future,  the 
I.  W.  W.  is  serenely  visionary."  A  leader  of  the  I. 
W.  W.  when  asked  what  they  expected  to  happen  after 
the  collapse  of  the  present  industrial  system,  calmly 
answered,  "  We  shall  see." 

The  Industrial  Workers  of  the  World  carry  on  their 
operations  chiefly  in  industrial  districts  among  tex- 
tile, lumber,  and  marine  workers,  where  large  masses  of 
foreign  laborers  are  herded  together.  Although  on  ac- 
count of  the  activity  of  its  leaders  and  the  startling 
nature  of  its  doctrines,  the  order  has  become  widely 
talked  of,  its  membership  is  small. 

RUSSIA    AND    THE    SOVIET 

Since  the  collapse  of  Russia  in  the  midst  of  the  Great 
War,  the  astonished  world  has  witnessed  the  domina- 
tion of  that  country  by  the  most  extremely  radical  ele- 
ment of  Socialism,  the  Maximists,  or,  as  they  are  com- 
monly called,  the  Bolsheviki.  This  word  simply  means 
"  majority."  The  party  in  power  has  adapted  itself 
to  "  the  soviet,"  a  method  of  carrying  on  governmental 
affairs  that  is  congenial  to  Russian  traditions  and  cus- 
tom. The  town  or  city  "  soviet  "  consists  of  delegates 
sent  from  associations  of  workers  in  various  trades  or 
professions.  The  rural  soviet  is  elected  from  a  gen- 
eral meeting  of  the  people  of  a  rural  district  or  village. 
These  Soviets  send  delegates  to  the  next  higher  soviet, 
where  delegates  from  a  large  district  meet.  These 
larger    Soviets    send    delegates    to    the    "  All    Russian 


246  AMERICAN  DEMOCRACY 

Soviet,"  a  central  body  which  elects  an  executive  com- 
mittee to  carry  on  the  government.  It  is  evident  from 
all  accounts  that  Russia  has  been  and  is  at  present  in 
the  hands  of  a  dictatorship  that  is  guiding  the  destines 
of  the  nation.  Just  what  processes  and  institutions 
have  been  set  up  in  Russia,  it  will  be  impossible  to  de- 
termine until  authentic  information  is  supplied  to  the 
world  outside  of  the  former  empire  of  the  czars.  What- 
ever the  outcome  of  the  situation  may  be,  it  is  evident 
to  all  that  the  Russians  must  be  allowed  to  work  out 
their  own  problems  in  relation  to  domestic  and  foreign 
affairs. 

SOCIALISM    TO-DAY 

Since  the  close  of  the  Great  War,  all  Europe  has 
become  well  acquainted  with  the  various  forms  of 
Socialism  from  the  extreme  revolutionary  type  as  rep- 
resented by  the  Sparticus  group  in  Germany,  to  a 
milder  form  in  Czecho-Slovakia.  At  present,  the  world 
is  in  danger  from  uneducated  democracy,  for,  as  Karl 
Marx  himself  feared,  the  unbridled  democracy  of  the 
mass  of  Europeans  is  finding  itself  helpless  and  ready 
to  fall  into  the  hands  of  violent  demagogues,  extreme 
ultra-revolutionists,  who  wish  to  abolish  all  existing 
forms  of  the  social  and  political  order.  This  situation 
has  encouraged  the  extreme  reactionaries,  on  the  other 
hand,  to  make  an  attempt  to  bring  back  the  old  order 
of  things  as  a  defense  against  radicalism. 

In  our  own  country  there  are  almost  as  many  brands 
of  Sociahsm  as  there  are  men  who  profess  to  be  social- 
ists. To  add  to  this  confusion,  there  are  people  who 
are  constantly  being  labelled  with  the  socialistic  title 
who  are  not  socialists  at  all.  If  a  man  believes  in  state 
ownership  of  public  utilities,  railroads,  telegraph  and 


REVOLUTIONARY  THEORIES  247 

telephone  systems,  some  one  calls  him  a  "  socialist."  If 
a  workman  throws  a  monkey-wrench  into  a  threshing 
machine,  the  newspapers  display  in  giant  headlines. 
..."  Socialist  Agitator."  If  an  honest  lover  of  his 
fellow  men,  be  he  public  official  or  humble  citizen,  sick- 
ened at  cruel  and  revolting  industrial  injustices,  gives 
voice  to  the  opinion  that  there  should  be  a  decided  re- 
vision of  our  laws  in  relation  to  capital  and  labor,  it 
soon  begins  to  be  whispered  that  he  is  a  "  socialist  "  or 
at  least  "  socialistic." 

But  there  is  a  decided  difference  between  the  man 
who  sincerely  believes  that  reforms  should  be  made  in 
our  government  and  economic  system  and  the  man  who 
is  an  out-and-out  socialist.  The  difference  is  funda- 
mentally a  spiritual  one.  The  real  socialist  has  a  de- 
votion to  his  belief  in  revolution  that  permeates  and 
colors  his  every  day  life.  It  sets  up  a  sort  of  permanent 
fever  in  his  blood.  In  fact.  Socialism  has  come  to  be  a 
sort  of  religious  cult.  Having  cast  God  out  of  all  hu- 
man relations,  the  socialist  has  been  compelled  to  intro- 
duce a  substitute  in  his  effort  to  make  real  the  brother- 
hood of  man.  Moreover,  in  order  to  give  life  to  his 
theory  of  revolution,  he  has  taken  as  his  own  the  Golden 
Rule,  believing  perhaps,  that  by  giving  it  a  new  name  he 
can  make  it  work  better  than  it  has  worked  in  the  past. 

ERRORS   OF    SOCIALISM 

The  methods  advocated  by  the  adherents  of  extreme 
socialism  are  to  be  condemned.  They  look  to  class  war 
as  the  great  solvent,  and  to  that  end  strive  by  every 
means  to  excite  class  hatred  and  class  consciousness. 
Once  the  "  workers  "  have  triumphed  over  the  "  rich  " 
they  promise  that  everything  will  be  well.  Although 
man,  according  to  the  socialist,  has  had  a  very  poor 


248  AMERICAN  DEMOCRACY 

record,  has  indeed,  from  the  first  been  dominated  by 
greed  and  selfishness,  in  some  miraculous  way  he  expects 
this  same  man  to  be  almost  perfect  as  soon  as  the  "  revo- 
lution "  has  come  to  pass  and  the  socialistic  panacea  of 
collectivism  has  been  applied. 

As  far  as  it  can  be  viewed  as  a  protest  against  ex- 
treme individualism,  Socialism  is  right.  But  Socialism, 
on  the  other  hand,  goes  to  the  other  extreme  by  depriv- 
ing the  individual  of  his  liberty  and  by  making  him  a 
slave  of  the  community. 

Socialists  assume  a  most  disconcerting  attitude  of 
cock-sureness.  They  know  that  they  are  right  and 
everybody  else  is  wrong.  Relief  for  society  is  to  come 
in  the  way  they  have  marked  out  and  in  no  other. 
Therefore  the  most  extreme  socialists  are  glad  to  see 
things  going  from  bad  to  worse  in  the  strife  between 
capital  and  labor.  The  worse  it  gets,  the  sooner  they 
expect  the  revolution  to  come.  Majority  opinion  makes 
no  appeal  to  them.  In  the  Socialist  Party  if  a  mem- 
ber does  not  accept  the  whole  platform,  out  he  goes. 
Their  methods  are  as  autocratic  as  any  despot's  ever 
were,  their  "  absolute  majority  "  is  as  great  a  tyranny 
as  was  ever  exercised  by  Czar  or  Kaiser. 


As  an  indication  of  their  radical  principles  and  de- 
mands, we  quote  the  following  paragraphs  from  a  book 
written  by  an  American  socialist  in  1916 : 

"A  temporary  socialist  city  government  failed  to 
do  the  few  things  that  a  socialist  city  administration 
may  do  which  are  more  or  less  in  accordance  with  larger 
Socialistic  aims.  For  example,  they  should  have  made 
the  public  schools  vehicles  of  Socialistic  propaganda, 


REVOLUTIONARY  THEORIES  249 

and  so  at  the  public  expense  have  indoctrinated  the 
young  with  revolutionary  doctrine." 

Of  the  war  between  Socialism  and  religion  he  says: 
"  Therefore  the  Socialists  are  against  organized  re- 
ligion. ...  It  is  an  issue  which  had  better  be  sharp- 
ened and  not  blurred  with  timid  explanations.  Who- 
ever is  not  for  us  is  against  us.  .  .  .  Nothing  can  be 
sillier,  more  inept  than  what  is  called  Christian  Social- 
ism, an  artificial  hybrid." 

His  definition  of  a  socialist  is  sharp  and  clear.  "  The 
class  struggle  is  a  fact.  The  economic  interpretation 
of  history  is  a  way  of  accounting  for  the  fact,  of  ex- 
plaining the  great  revolution  which  has  already  come, 
and  of  predicting  what  the  next  revolution  will  be.  The 
Socialist  is  any  one  who  wishes  that  in  the  contest  of 
classes  the  working  class  shall  prevail  to  the  destruc- 
tion of  all  other  classes,  so  that  there  shall  be  no  class 
in  the  world  but  workers,  and  that  everything  above 
ground  and  underground  upon  which  the  human  race 
depends  for  a  living  shall  be  owned  and  administered 
by  society  as  a  whole  without  regard  to  race,  creed, 
color,  or  previous  condition  of  servitude  or  mastery. 
Any  one  who  so  wills,  wishes,  hopes,  or  believes  is  a 
Socialist." 


CHAPTER  XIII 

THE  GREAT  WAR:     CAUSES  AND  PRELIM- 
INARY CONDITIONS 

Careless  seems  the  great  Avenger ;  history's  pages  but  record 

One   death-grapple   in  the   darkness  'twixt   old   systems   and   the 

Word; 
Truth  forever  on  the  scaffold.  Wrong  forever  on  the  throne, — 
Yet  that  scaffold  sways  the  future,  and  behind  the  dim  unknown 
Standeth  God  within  the  shadow,  keeping  watch  above  His  own. 

James  Russell  Lowell. 

To  get  even  a  faint  glimmering  of  the  causes  that 
led  to  the  Great  War,  it  is  necessary  to  look  hastily 
over  the  immediate  past  of  the  countries  that  compose 
Europe,  and  to  survey  with  attention  the  1914  map  of 
that  continent.  The  whole  continent  of  Europe  is  only 
about  as  large  as  the  United  States;  France  and  Ger- 
many each  has  an  area  about  equal  to  that  of  Texas; 
while  Great  Britain's  territorial  extent  corresponds  to 
that  of  our  New  England  States. 

To  understand  the  war,  a  brief  review  should  be 
made  of  European  conditions  during  recent  years.  In 
the  century  preceding  the  uniting  of  the  German  states 
in  1870,  France  had  emerged  from  the  social  upheaval 
caused  by  the  French  Revolution,  had  passed  through 
the  period  of  the  Empire  under  Napoleon  I,  and  finally 
had  fallen  under  the  sway  of  Napoleon  III,  the  nephew 
of  the  Great  Emperor. 

THE    FRANCO-PRUSSIAN    WAR,    1870 

England  and  Prussia  had  defeated  Napoleon  I  at 
Waterloo  in  1815,  leaving  England  the  undisputed  mis- 

250 


BEFORE  THE  GREAT  WAR       251 

tress  of  the  seas  and  giving  the  German  states  a  chance 
to  assume  a  prominent  position  on  the  mainland  of  the 
continent.  Prussia,  under  Chancellor  Bismarck,  had 
in  1866  been  made  the  leading  state  in  the  North  Ger- 
man Confederation  with  William  I  of  Prussia  as  the 
President  of  the  new  league  of  states.  Bismarck,  who 
was  looking  for  some  bait  that  would  induce  the  South 
German  States  to  come  into  the  German  union,  took  ad- 
vantage of  a  threatened  breach  between  France  and 
Prussia  over  the  successor  to  the  Spanish  crown,  to 
bring  on  a  war  which,  he  rightly  judged,  would  end  in 
a  victory  for  German  arms. 

The  French  had  demanded  that  the  candidate,  a 
Hohenzollern,  be  withdrawn  and  William  I  had  com- 
plied with  the  request,  and  sent  a  telegram  —  the  now 
famous  "  Ems  Dispatch  "  —  to  Bismarck  telling  him 
of  the  interview  that  he  had  had  with  the  French  dip- 
lomat. Bismarck  rewrote  the  dispatch  so  that  it  ap- 
peared that  the  German  King  had  been  harsh  and  curt 
and  had  virtually  shut  the  diplomatic  door  in  the 
French  ambassador's  face.  Bismarck  sent  the  edited 
dispatch  to  the  newspapers  expecting  to  cause  a  rup- 
ture with  France.  He  was  not  disappointed;  the 
French  Emperor,  Napoleon  III,  was  highly  incensed 
and  France  at  once  declared  war  on  Germany. 

The  Franco-Prussian  war  lasted  from  July  19,  1870, 
to  January  28,  1871,  a  little  over  six  months.  The 
contest  though  brief  was  decisive.  Much  of  the  action 
of  the  war  took  place  about  the  fortresses  of  Metz 
and  Strassburg.  The  French  Marshall,  McMahon, 
having  no  support  in  the  field  or  in  the  government,  was 
utterly  unprepared  to  cope  with  the  highly  organized 
German  military  machine  that  Bismarck  had  prepared 
for  such  an  occasion.     One  part  of  the  French  army 


252  AMERICAN  DEMOCRACY 

was  finally  penned  up  in  the  virtually  impregnable  Metz, 
where  it  was  starved  into  surrender.  The  remainder 
of  the  army  met  inglorious  defeat  at  Sedan,  September 
2,  1870. 

Napoleon  III  fell  in  the  dust  at  William's  feet.  He 
was  spurned  alike  by  his  enemies  and  his  "  subjects." 
Immediately  upon  the  collapse  of  the  Second  Empire, 
the  Third  French  Republic  was  declared,  and  under  a 
provisional  "  Government  of  the  Public  Defense,"  the 
war  against  Germany  was  continued.  The  German 
army  won  one  victory  after  another;  Strassburg  fell, 
Metz  soon  followed,  and  before  long  the  Germans  were 
on  their  way  to  Paris.  The  proud  city  was  forced  to 
capitulate.  During  the  long  hours  of  the  never-to-be- 
forgotten  day  when  the  conquering  army  took  posses- 
sion of  the  French  capital,  the  spiked  helmets  of  the 
German  soldiers,  file  after  file,  passed  into  the  city. 

ALSACE-LORRAINE  t 

Dazzled  by  the  success  of  Prussian  arms,  the  South 
German  states  hastened  to  ask  to  be  admitted  to  Bis- 
marck's Federation.  Their  request  granted,  it  needed 
but  a  suggestion  from  Bismarck  to  bring  about  the  offer 
of  the  Imperial  Crown  to  William  I.  William  promptly 
accepted  the  honor  and,  on  January  18,  1871,  in  the 
palace  of  the  French  kings  at  Versailles,  the  King  of 
Prussia  became  Kaiser  of  the  German  Empire.  Bis- 
marck had  succeeded  in  his  design,  not  only  by  blood 
and  iron,  but  by  trickery  and  falsehood. 

The  victorious  Germans  exacted  the  last  pound  of 
flesh  from  prostrate  France.  Alsace  and  Lorraine,  the 
great  iron  region  of  France,  with  the  fortress  of  Metz 
and  the  noble  city  of  Strassburg,  were  laid  down  as 
the  ransom  for  the  nation's  life.     It  is  interesting  in 


BEFORE  THE  GREAT  WAR       253 

the  light  of  the  present  to  read  what  Bismarck  had  to 
say  about  the  necessity  of  retaining  this  territory: 
"  In  the  possession  of  Germany,  Strassburg  and  Metz 
acquire  a  defensive  character.  In  rendering  it  difficult 
for  France  to  act  on  the  offensive,  we  are  acting,  at  the 
same  time,  in  the  interest  of  Europe,  which  is  that  of 
peace.  No  disturbance  of  the  peace  of  Europe  is  to  be 
feared  from  Germany." ! 

Besides  the  territorial  indemnity,  an  enormous  money 
payment  —  enormous  for  1871,  not  for  1919  —  was 
exacted ;  five  billion  francs,  or  about  one  billion  dollars. 
A  German  army  of  occupation  was  stationed  in  France, 
to  remain  until  all  of  the  conditions  of  the  treaty,  in- 
cluding the  payment  of  the  five  billion  franc  indemnity, 
were  carried  out.  By  a  remarkable  oversight,  no  time 
limit  was  set  for  the  payment  of  the  debt,  Bismarck 
thinking  it  would  take  at  least  ten  years  to  make  the 
final  settlement. 

But  Bismarck  did  not  understand  French  patriotism. 
The  peasants  owned  nearly  all  of  the  land  in  France 
in  small  holdings  of  less  than  twenty-five  acres  each, 
and  at  the  call  of  the  government,  they  went  down  into 
their  stockings,  brought  out  their  savings,  invested  them 
in  government  securities,  and  paid  off  the  debt  within  a 
year.  Thus,  at  one  stroke,  they  were  rid  of  the  debt 
and  the  obnoxious  foreign  army. 

THE    GERMAN    EMPIRE 

After  the  victory  over  France,  Bismarck  went  back 
to  the  Wilhelmstrasse,  his  official  residence  in  Berlin 
well  satisfied  with  the  result  of  his  statesmanship.  His 
great  desire  had  been  realized.  Prussia  was  the  head  of 
the  German  Empire.  The  Iron  Chancellor  was  willing 
to  spend  the  remainder  of  his  days  in  building  up  the 


BEFORE  THE  GREAT  WAR       255 

strength  and  prestige  of  the  Teutonic  state.  He  had 
no  colonial  ambitions  for  Germany ;  indeed  he  was  kept 
busy  with  troublesome  internal  affairs. 

When  William  I,  King  of  Prussia  and  Kaiser  of  the 
German  Empire,  died  in  1888,  he  was  succeeded  by  his 
son,  Frederick  III,  who  had  married  Victoria,  the 
daughter  of  the  English  Queen.  Frederick  III,  a  man 
of  sterling  character  and  liberal  views,  lived  but  a  few 
months.  He  was  in  turn  succeeded  by  his  son,  William 
II.  The  young  King  has  a  taste  for  managing  his 
own  affairs  and  it  was  not  long  until  he  dismissed  the 
veteran  chancellor,  Bismarck.  From  time  to  time, 
Americans  heard  of  this  spectacular  German  Kaiser, 
who,  though  he  had  a  very  good  opinion  of  his  own 
powers,  seemed  a  decent  sort  of  ruler  by  all  accounts. 
Meantime  Germany  was  fast  becoming  the  leader  of 
the  world  in  science  and  in  manufactures,  as  she  had 
long  been  in  education. 

ENGLAND    SINCE    1870 

In  many  ways  England  had  prospered  wonderfully 
during  the  latter  part  of  the  nineteenth  century.  She 
was  at  the  head  of  a  great  colonial  empire;  she  vir- 
tually ruled  the  seas  over  which  she  exercised  a  policy 
of  "  enlightened  selfishness."  Her  people  at  home  had 
pushed  popular  government  forward  in  a  remarkable 
way.  Yet  her  land  system  was  one  of  the  worst  in 
Europe,  nearly  all  her  soil  being  held  together  in  great 
estates.  Moreover,  she  still  had  her  unsettled  Irish 
question,  which  after  seven  hundred  fifty  years  of  strug- 
gle remained  her  most  serious  governmental  problem. 

AUSTRIA-HUNGARY 

For  centuries  the  House  of  Hapsburg  had  ruled  over 
a  strange  conglomeration  of  peoples  in  central  Europe 


256  AMERICAN  DEMOCRACY 

making  up  a  number  of  territorial  divisions,  but  known 
in  a  general  way  as  the  Austrian  Empire.  The  early 
part  of  the  nineteenth  century  had  been  unkind  to  the 
Hapsburgs.  Some  of  their  provinces  had  been  lost  to 
Italy,  and  Bismarck,  in  the  reorganization  of  Germany 
that  followed  the  Franco-Prussian  War,  had  expelled 
them  from  the  German  states,  where  their  interests  were 
formerly  considerable.  The  principal  large  divisions  of 
territory  over  which  this  famous  House  retained  control 
in  1866  were  Austria  and  Hungary. 

Hungary,  dominated  by  the  proud  Magyars,  a  people 
of  Slavic  and  Mongolian  blood,  took  advantage  of  the 
unhappy  plight  in  which  their  rulers  found  themselves 
and  demanded  an  independent  kingdom.  In  this  it  was 
successful,  establishing  its  own  parliament,  naming 
Budapest  as  its  capital,  but  choosing  Francis  Joseph, 
Emperor  of  Austria,  as  its  King.  The  two  govern- 
ments shared  the  general  taxes  that  applied  to  both 
countries,  but  kept  separate  the  administration  of  their 
laws. 

Austria-Hungary,  or  the  Dual  Empire,  as  it  came  to 
be  known  after  1867,  was  bound  together  under  Francis 
Joseph,  who  was  Emperor  of  Austria  and  King  of  Hun- 
gary for  sixty-eight  years  (1848-1916).  But  in  order 
to  understand  the  true  situation  it  is  important  to  re- 
member that  within  the  borders  of  Austria-Hungary  in 
1914  there  was  a  mixture  of  nationalities  and  languages 
that  could  never  be  made  into  one  homogeneous  state. 

The  dominant  race  in  Austria  was  the  German,  but 
they  w^ere  not  the  majority  of  the  whole  population. 
There  were  besides,  Czechs  in  Bohemia,  ardent  for  lib- 
erty and  chafing  under  German  domination;  Poles  in 
the  territory  that  was  once  a  part  of  the  ancient  king- 
dom of  Poland;  Slovaks  in  Moravia  and  Silicia;  Croats 


258  AMERICAN  DEMOCRACY 

in  Croatia;  Slovenes  in  Slavonia;  Styrians  in  Styria; 
and  Serbs  in  the  more  recently  annexed  provinces  of 
Bosnia  and  Herzegovina.  All  of  these  were  Slavic 
peoples  with  a  racial  kinship  to  the  Russians ;  all  were 
distrustful  of  their  Teutonic  overlords. 

In  Hungary,  the  ruling  race  —  the  Magyars  —  had 
fought  passionately  for  liberty,  but,  having  gained  it, 
denied  like  rights  to  the  subjects  who  were  under  the 
rule  of  the  kingdom.  The  Magyars  alone  were  allowed 
the  privilege  of  suffrage;  they  held  all  the  money  and 
lands,  and,  though  in  a  minority,  they  managed  to  keep 
control  of  the  government. 

Here  were  aU  the  ingredients  of  a  witch's  brew,  which 
it  has  proved  to  be  among  nations.  For  years  people 
said,  "  Wait  until  Emperor  Francis  Joseph  dies,  then 
Austria-Hungary  will  fall  to  pieces.  Every  one  in  that 
empire  is  an  irreconcilable."  Under  the  pressure  of 
German  influence  the  breaking  up  of  the  Dual  Mon- 
archy was  postponed  until  Germany  herself  was  beaten 
in  the  Great  War. 

RUSSIA  THE    ABSOLUTE 

To  the  east,  occupying  over  half  of  Europe  and  ex- 
tending across  Northern  Asia  to  the  Pacific,  lay  Russia, 
the  mystery  of  nations,  the  seat  of  unthinkable  powers, 
the  source  of  the  threatening  "  Slav  peril  "  dreaded 
by  the  people  of  Western  Europe.  Russia's  history  is 
full  of  tantalizing  romance  and  dark,  shadowy  horror. 
She  emerged  from  a  state  of  Asiatic  half-savagery,  in 
the  early  years  of  the  eighteenth  century,  at  the  com- 
mand of'Peter  the  Great  (1689-1725).  He  found  Rus- 
sia untouched  by  European  civilization  and  determined 
to  Europeanize  her.  Because  he  wanted  a  "  window  " 
on  the  sea  for  his  country,  he  built  St.  Petersburg  — 


^t-l 


i 

MmimrrrTrfffl 

I 

1    , 

J    .lA  ^ 

•311 .  1 
fill 

§■ 

-s       \                     SI 

260  AMERICAN  DEMOCRACY 

the  Petrograd  of  to-day  —  on  the  marshes  of  the  Baltic 
inlet  which  he  had  wrested  from  Sweden.  He  moved 
the  capital  to  this  new  city,  abandoning  ancient  Mos- 
cow, a  city  half  oriental,  half  European.  He  taxed  the 
long  sleeves  and  long  beards  of  the  Russian  peasantry 
with  a  view  of  making  them  unpopular  and  thus  accom- 
plished much  "  civilizing  "  on  the  surface,  at  least. 

But  Peter  tlie  Great  did  not  give  his  people  freedom. 
He  was  their  absolute  Czar.  His  daughter,  the  Em- 
press Elizabeth,  who  followed  him,  seized  most  of  Fin- 
land and  added  it  to  the  Russian  dominion.  Then  came 
Catherine,  a  powerful  and  unscrupulous  German  prin- 
cess. She  extended  her  empire  toward  the  Black  Sea 
on  the  south,  and  then,  looking  toward  the  west  for 
lands  to  conquer,  saw  Poland,  a  weak,  distracted,  badly 
governed  but  nobly-peopled  kingdom.  Securing  the 
cooperation  of  Prussia  and  later  of  Austria,  in  three 
successive  strokes  —  in  1772,  1793,  and  in  1795  — 
these  "  royal  robbers "  cut  Poland  into  pieces,  and 
divided  its  territory  among  themselves.  Russia,  as 
usual,  "  digesting  its  frontiers,"  seized  the  largest 
share ;  Prussia  was  well  pleased  with  her  spoil,  which  in- 
cluded Danzig;  Austria,  the  weakest  of  the  brigands, 
received  the  smallest  portion  of  territorial  loot. 

For  many  years  thereafter  Russia  kept  up  her  digest- 
ing process  —  Courland,  Esthonia,  and  Livonia  became 
hers.  The  vast  Russian  empire  included  the  tremen- 
dous expanses  of  Siberia,  which  reached  to  the  Pacific 
on  the  east  and  threatened  England's  power  in  India 
on  the  southeast.  It  was  the  greatest  "  absolute  "  mon- 
archy in  the  world.  We  learned  in  our  American  geog- 
raphies that  the  Czar  held  the  lives  of  all  his  people 
in  the  hollow  of  his  hand  and  that  if  one  word  was 


BEFORE  THE  GREAT  WAR  261' 

spoken  against  the  government,  the  offender  was 
whipped  off  to  Siberia,  there  to  languish  in  "  penal  " 
servitude.  The  Russian  government  became,  in  Amer- 
ican minds,  synonymous  with  all  that  was  horrible,  cruel, 
and  tyrannical.  The  Russian  peasants  bore  their  ter- 
rible oppression  in  a  stolid  sort  of  way — ^  they  are  a 
mild,  gentle,  kind-hearted  religious  people  —  but  revo- 
lutionary doctrine  flourished  in  the  dark  and  the  forces 
of  revolt  gathered,  until,  in  1906,  there  was  a  popular 
uprising  that  led  the  Czar  to  grant  to  his  people  a 
representative  assembly,  called  the  "  Duma."  Of  the 
real  Russia,  America  had  known  very  little  In  the  days 
before  the  Great  War  and  since  that  struggle,  this 
nation,  mighty  in  area  and  possibilities,  has  remained 
hidden  in  mystery. 

POLAND 

Previous  to  its  dismemberment,  which  was  completed 
in  1795,  Poland  had  been,  in  extent  of  territory,  one  of 
the  largest  of  the  European  nations.  Politically,  how- 
ever, it  had  been  weak.  There  was  no  middle  class  in 
Poland,  but  about  one  hundred  thousand  noblemen  and 
twelve  million  serfs.  Every  noble  had  a  right  to  vote 
for  the  king  and  one  "  black  ball  "  stopped  an  election. 
This  necessity  for  unanimous  consent  —  the  paralyzing 
"  liberum  veto  "  —  made  a  political  deadlock  the  normal 
condition  in  Poland. 

After  Russia,  Prussia,  and  Austria  had  stolen  all  of 
its  territory,  Poland  was  supposed  to  be  exterminated. 
But  Poland  did  not  die.  Her  exiled  sons  walked  the 
earth  far  from  their  loved  native  land,  but  they  never 
ceased  to  be  Poles  and  to  cherish  dreams  of  the  day  of 
restoration.     The  millions  that  were  not  able  to  leave 


262  AMERICAN  DEMOCRACY 

their  native  country  remained  at  heart  a  separate  peo- 
ple, though  each  conqueror  strove  in  his  own  way  to 
absorb  the  Poles  and  destroy  their  loyalty  to  a  nation 
that  politically  had  ceased  to  exist.  When  the  final 
test  of  strength  in  the  Great  War  came,  it  was  found 
that  while  the  Poles  might  be  forced  into  the  armies  of 
their  Teuton  overlords,  they  could  never  be  made  to 
fight  for  them  with  any  degree  of  effectiveness.  The 
final  crumbling  of  the  German  morale  was  largely  due 
to  these  soldiers  who  hated  the  autocracy  under  whose 
banners  they  were  forced  to  enlist. 

THE    SMALLER    COUNTRIES 

In  southern  Europe  Italy  had  become,  in  govern- 
ment, a  United  Italy  in  1870,  but  she  was  far  from 
united  in  reality.  There  was  a  distinct  divergence  in 
ideals  and  politics  between  north  and  south  Italy. 
Though  the  country  w^as  a  constitutional  monarchy, 
suffrage  was  neglected  by  a  great  part  of  the  people, 
largely  because  of  their  lack  of  political  training. 
Spain  was  almost  unthought  of  —  even  the  Spanish- 
American  War  (1898)  failed  to  revive  much  interest 
in  that  country.  Portugal  had  thrown  off  her  king. 
Switzerland  was  a  country  of  superlative  political  effi- 
ciency, with  a  republican  form  of  government. 

In  the  northern  part  of  Europe,  Norway,  Sweden, 
Denmark,  Holland,  and  Belgium  were  making  great 
strides  both  economically  and  politically,  while  a  steady 
growth  in  constitutional  liberty  along  sane  and  safe 
lines  had  been  going  on  in  them  since  1815.  Nor- 
way was  the  first  nation  to  grant  suffrage  to  women. 
Belgium  was  frequently  spoken  of  as  the  most  highly 
civilized  country  on  the  globe. 


264  AMERICAN  DEMOCRACY 

THE    BALKANS    AND    TURKEY 

Not  until  very  recent  years  did  the  world  begin  to 
hear  of  the  Balkan  countries  and  the  Balkan  question, 
although  the  Near  East  had  figured  in  world  politics 
for  many  centuries.  The  territory  in  question  had 
from  time  immemorial  been  under  the  control  of  Tur- 
key, who  owed  her  European  existence  to  the  jealousy 
of  the  stronger  powers,  by  which  she  had  been  left  as 
a  "  buffer  "  to  curb  the  ambitions  of  Russia  and  Aus- 
tria. In  1821,  Greece  succeeded  in  wresting  her  inde- 
pendence from  Turkey.  Gradually  the  power  of  Tur- 
key was  weakened,  until  after  numerous  eff*orts,  there 
were  set  up  besides  Greece  several  new  states,  at 
first  but  partially  free  from  Turkish  domination,  but 
after  a  time  entirely  freed  from  the  Moslem  yoke. 
Here  Roumania,  proudly  boasting  descent  from  an  an- 
cient colony  of  the  Romans,  came  into  existence.  Here, 
too,  arose  Serbia  and  Bulgaria,  ardent,  jealous,  and 
determined  to  expand  their  dominion  over  their  "  own 
people  "  regardless  of  the  fact  that  it  was  almost  im- 
possible to  distinguish  who  properly  belonged  to  them. 
Besides  these  was  Montenegro,  a  tiny  principality  lying 
near  the  Adriatic ;  Albania,  a  strange  country  inhab- 
ited by  lawlessly-independent  Mohammedans ;  and  two 
provinces,  Bosnia  and  Herzegovina,  peopled  largely  by 
Serbians,  but  regarded  by  Austria  as  properly  belong- 
ing to  herself. 

THE    BALANCE    OF    POWER 

Bitterly  jealous  warfare  among  these  Balkan  nations 
was  intermittently  carried  on,  varied  by  common  move- 
ments against  Turkey,  the  enemy  of  all.     These  wars 


BEFORE  THE  GREAT  WAR       265 

and  the  generally  unsettled  condition  of  the  Balkan 
countries  were  annoying  to  the  rest  of  Europe,  since 
a  settled  condition  was  of  immense  importance  to  the 
great  powers  —  England,  France,  Germany,  Austria- 
Hungary,  and  Russia.  Napoleon  had  furnished  a  fear- 
ful example  of  the  effect  of  a  continental  upheaval. 
Above  all  things  else  peace  was  desirable  in  order  that 
national  development,  colonial  expansion,  and  the  un- 
disturbed extension  of  commercial  enterprises  might  be 
carried  on.  In  a  word,  it  seemed  to  the  best  interests  of 
all  to  maintain  what  had  come  to  be  known  as  the 
"  Balance  of  Power "  in  Europe.  Considering  the 
varied  interests  at  stake  and  the  close  quarters  into 
which  all  these  nations  were  crowded,  it  is  easy  to  see 
the  need  of  constant  watching  to  keep  this  European 
balance  true  and  undisturbed. 

The  Crimean  War  of  1858  had  been  an  ignoble  strug- 
gle to  keep  the  dearly  prized  Balance  of  Power  from 
dipping  to  one  side.  In  that  war,  England,  France, 
and  Italy  ranged  themselves  with  the  "  unspeakable 
Turk  "  to  block  the  aggressions  of  Russia.  At  the  close 
of  the  war  Turkey's  place  in  Europe  was  assured. 
Though  her  atrocious  cruelties  in  Armenia  and  in  the 
Balkans  were  undeniably  without  excuse,  the  great 
powers  of  Europe  decided  that  she  was  needed  in  Eu- 
rope to  maintain  the  Balance  of  Power.  Russia  must 
not  possess  Constantinople,  though  she  longed  with  nat- 
ural desire  for  a  port  in  the  "warm  blue  water";  she 
must  content  herself  with  St.  Petersburg,  her  window 
on  the  chill  Gulf  of  Riga,  an  arm  of  the  bleak  Baltic 
Sea,  whose  outlet  to  the  high  seas  was  jealously  guarded, 
not  only  by  Germany,  but  by  Norway,  Sweden,  and 
Denmark. 


266  AMERICAN  DEMOCRACY 

THE    TWO    GREAT    ALLIANCES 

After  the  Franco-Prussian  War,  Bismarck  realized 
the  need  of  support  in  order  to  make  it  seem  hopeless 
for  France  to  try  to  regain  Alsace  and  Lorraine.  A 
friendly  alHance  was  therefore  made  between  the  em- 
perors of  Germany,  Austria,  and  Russia  by  which 
France  was  y)ractically  isolated  and  made  helpless.  But 
Russia  and  Austria  were  rivals  in  the  Balkans,  and 
when,  after  a  war  of  conquest  in  which  Russia  took 
much  of  the  Balkan  territory  from  Turkey,  a  dispute 
arose  with  the  other  European  nations  over  the  reten- 
tion of  this  territory,  Germany  sided  with  Austria 
against  her  other  ally.  This  action  made  a  hopeless 
breach  between  Russia  and  Germany. 

Bismarck  realizing  the  need  of  support,  looked  to 
Austria  for  a  closer  and  more  binding  treaty.  This 
he  secured  in  1879.  By  it  each  of  these  nations  was 
bound  to  help  the  other  if  attacked  by  Russia.  If 
either  Germany  or  Austria  was  set  upon  by  any  other 
nation  —  France  was  probably  chiefly  in  mind  —  the 
ally  not  attacked  promised  to  remain  neutral,  except 
that  if  Russia  should  go  to  the  aid  of  the  aggressor, 
the  allies  were  pledged  to  make  common  cause  for  their 
mutual  defense. 

In  1882  Bismarck  encouraged  France  to  establish  a 
new  African  colony,  although  Italy  was  much  opposed 
to  this.  Then  the  German  Chancellor  induced  Italy 
to  join  with  Germany  and  Austria  in  a  Triple  Alliance, 
which  continued  and  expanded  the  general  terms  of  the 
German-Austrian  agreement  in  such  a  way  as  to  include 
the  third  nation.  This  gave  Germany  the  strength 
she  needed  against  her  two  chief  rivals  in  power  on  the 
continent  of  Europe. 


BEFORE  THE  GREAT  WAR       267 

France  realized  that  she  was  left  in  an  unfortunate 
position  and  that  the  Balance  of  Power  was  badly 
tipped  toward  the  side  of  the  Triple  AlHance.  At  the 
same  time  England,  who  had  been  coming  constantly 
into  diplomatic  friction  with  Germany  over  colonial 
possessions,  saw  the  need  of  closer  relations  with  one  or 
more  strong  powers  to  hold  Germany  within  bounds.  It 
came  about,  therefore,  without  any  binding  agreements 
among  the  three  nations,  that  England,  France,  and 
Russia  were  informally  pledged  to  act  together  on  mat- 
ters that  were  common  to  all  of  the  nations.  This 
harmony  of  action  and  apparent  diplomatic  under- 
standing bound  these  three  nations  together  in  what 
was  known  as  the  "  Entente  Cordiale  "  or  the  "  Triple 
Entente." 

It  might  be  asked  how  it  happened  that  Great  Brit- 
ain, a  constitutional  monarchy,  associated  herself  with 
Russia,  an  absolute  despotism.  The  answer  is  found 
in  the  fact  that  while  the  home  government  of  Great 
Britain  is  democratic  and  responsive  to  the  popular 
will,  her  minister  of  foreign  relations  is  removed  from 
popular  control  and  can  make  open  or  secret  treaties 
without  the  consent  or  knowledge  of  the  English  people. 
When  the  American  realizes  that  the  same  is  true  of 
the  French  Republic  and  the  Italian  Constitutional 
Monarchy,  he  is  able  to  see  clearly  the  wide  gap  be- 
tween European  diplomacy  and  that  of  the  United 
States,  where  foreign  treaties  are  negotiated  "  by  the 
President,  by  and  with  the  advice  of  the  senate." 

Careless  of  European  alliances,  the  world  wagged  on. 
In  America  an  era  of  unprecedented  prosperity  had  set 
in,  and  the  disturbances  in  the  Balkans,  in  Austria,  and 
in  Russia  excited  little  interest.  Americans  knew  that 
Russia  had  been  worsted  in  a  Japanese-Russian  war. 


268  AMERICAN  DEMOCRACY 

They  were  very  proud  of  tlie  fact,  that  President  Roose- 
velt had  helped  bring  about  a  satisfactory  peace. 
They  knew  also  that  there  had  occurred  a  Balkan  war, 
from  which  echoes  came  of  horrible  deeds  committed, 
not  only  on  men  bearing  arms,  but  on  women  and  chil- 
dren. They  knew  also  that  Serbia  had  come  off  the 
victor. 

Austria,  after  a  few  years'  protectorate  over  the 
virtually  Serbian  Bosnia  and  Herzegovina,  had,  in  the 
confusion  of  the  Balkan  situation,  quietly  and  finally 
annexed  them.  She  needed  a  buffer  toward  the  South. 
Serbia  was  powerless  to  protest,  and  the  two  provinces 
were  powerless  to  resist  openly,  although  their  peoples 
had  no  desire  to  become  a  part  of  Austria.  Secret 
societies  began  to  grow  and  plans  for  future  readjust- 
ment were  hatched  in  the  dark. 

EUROPEAN    COI.ONIAI.    AMBITIONS 

During  the  nineteenth  century,  the  European  powers 
had  by  no  means  confined  their  attention  to  Europe. 
Germany,  in  particular,  had  waked  up  to  her  need  for 
expansion  outside  of  Europe.  At  the  same  time  France 
and  Italy  were  anxiously  scanning  the  colonial  horizon. 
England  seemed  mainly  anxious  to  keep  what  she  al- 
ready had. 

Up  to  the  time  of  the  American  Revolution,  the 
colonial  policy  of  all  European  nations  had  been  con- 
ducted with  the  idea  that  colonies  existed  for  the  pur- 
pose of  furnishing  the  mother  country  with  commodi- 
ties which  could  not  be  produced  at  home.  They  were 
not  allowed  to  injure  the  industries  of  the  mother  coun- 
try in  any  way,  nor  help  those  of  her  rivals.  More- 
over, the  colonies  were  expected  to  help  bear  the  bur- 
dens of  government  and  of  the  army  and  navy.     The 


^^ 


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20 


ASHANJJ 


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j'(FRENCH 


'^^-3.iS&Mt^J"V}^:^. 


BR  SOJIAUj 
ABYSSINIA/ •: 

>/j)OMAl.l 
lanV 


[afric*"^  south 

'(ORiTibH^-  AFRICA-; 


AFRICA 


|:V:  ■•.•!  NOT  UNDER  EUROPfAN  CONTROl 


j  BRITISH 

] FRENCH 
FORMER 
GERMAN 


P0R7UG 
^^^  SPANISH 
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20" 


Africa  after  the  Great  War 


270  AMERICAN  DEMOCRACY 

successful  revolt  of  the  American  colonies  taught  Eng- 
land a  much-needed  lesson.  She  learned  that  she  could 
not  keep  her  hold  on  distant  colonies,  at  least  her 
colonies  of  white  people,  except  under  a  liberal  policy. 

Consequently,  England  pursued  an  enlightened  pol- 
icy toward  the  colonies  that  had  been  settled  by  Euro- 
pean immigration.  By  1914,  the  British  Empire  was 
far  in  the  lead  of  all  other  countries  in  colonial  pos- 
sessions. Besides  Australia,  the  Dominion  of  Canada, 
and  the  South  African  Confederation,  she  had  India, 
with  its  three  hundred  million  Hindus,  while  Gibraltar, 
Malta,  the  Suez  Canal,  Hongkong,  and  innumerable 
other  ports  of  call  and  coaling  stations,  made  a  com- 
plete chain  of  communication  around  the  globe.,  Great 
Britain,  also,  acted  as  guardian  to  Egypt,  which  was 
entirely  under  her  "  Sphere  of  Influence,"  a  new  and 
vague  term  that  began  to  be  used  to  indicate  the  hold 
that  a  powerful  country  might  have  on  a  backward  one. 
This  influence,  it  may  be  added,  frequently  grew  into 
power  that  annexed  the  backward  country  to  the  strong 
one  as  was  the  case  when  Austria  took  over  the  control 
of  Bosnia  and  Herzegovina. 

By  1914,  France  had  much  colonial  territory,  al- 
though she  was  far  behind  the  British  Empire.  She 
had  practical  possession  of  the  great  desert  of  Sahara 
and  her  Sphere  of  Influence  in  Algeria  had  become  fixed. 
She  had  Madagascar,  and  was  casting  eyes  on  the  basin 
of  the  Tigris  and  Euphrates.  Her  chief  rival  in  north- 
western Africa  was  Italy.  At  one  time  war  had  threat- 
ened, but  matters  had  been  patched  up  and  readjusted 
to  suit  France.  Italy,  though  outwitted  by  France 
in  northern  Africa,  had  two  small  African  coastal 
strips  —  Eritrea,  on  the  Red  Sea,  and  Somaliland,  ex- 


BEFORE  THE  GREAT  WAR       271 

tending  southwest  from  Cape  Guardaful  along  the  In- 
dian Ocean. 

Holland,  with  an  European  territory  of  minor  im- 
portance, had  vast  colonial  possessions  in  the  East 
Indies,  islands  of  great  natural  resources  as  yet  scarcely 
touched.  Spain  and  Portugal  had  long  ago  lost  their 
last  colonial  possessions. 

Germany  came  late  into  the  colonial  field.  Although 
Bismarck  had  showed  no  interest  in  such  expansion, 
before  the  end  of  his  career  as  Chancellor,  the  Germans 
had  established  a  protectorate  over  two  large  provinces 
in  western  Africa  —  Togoland  and  Kamerun  —  which 
contained  an  area  of  over  two  hundred  thousand  square 
miles.  Later  she  acquired  the  vast  territory  known  as 
German  West  Africa,  the  extent  of  which  was  greater 
than  all  of  Germany  in  Europe.  Even  larger  terri- 
tories were  secured  in  East  Africa  off  the  Coast  of  Zan- 
zibar, and  the  greater  part  of  New  Guinea  and  the 
Caroline  Islands  were  added  to  the  German  possessions. 

This  would  seem  to  be  a  fair  beginning  for  legitimate 
colonial  expansion  on  the  part  of  Germany,  but  for  a 
country  that  had  begun  to  dream  of  world  empire,  it 
was  not  sufficieint.  Because  of  her  desire  to  expand 
and  because  of  her  doubling  population,  Germany 
looked  about  for  other  lands  to  make  into  German  col- 
onies. She  found  there  was  little  chance  for  real  col- 
onization in  the  territory  she  had  acquired,  for  the  cli- 
mate of  her  African  lands  was  deadly  to  Europeans. 
If  Germany  was  to  grow,  it  was  evident  that  it  must  be 
by  extending  her  boundaries. 

Thus  came  about  the  "  Middle  Europe  "  project,  by 
which  Germany  saw  the  possibility  of  extending  her 
influence  to  the  southeast,  through  Austria-Hungary, 


272  AMERICAN  DEMOCRACY 

through  the  Balkans,  through  Turkey  in  Europe  and 
Turkey  in  Asia,  through  Palestine  and  by  way  of  Mes- 
opotamia, into  the  valley  of  the  Tigris  and  Euphrates 
as  far  as  the  Persian  Gulf.  If  the  German  Empire 
could  expand  in  that  direction,  she  might  become  the 
greatest  power  in  the  world.  Germany  at  once  en- 
tered into  a  close  alliance  with  Austria-Hungary,  took 
on  most  cordial  relations  with  the  Turk,  and  began 
to  plan  a  Berlin-to-Bagdad  railway. 

ENGLAND    AND    GERMANY 

The  only  rival  Germany  feared  was  England,  and  she 
feared  her  only  on  the  sea.  Then  began  that  dramatic 
struggle  between  Germany  and  England  in  their  mutual 
effort  to  outstrip  each  other  in  ship-building.  For 
every  dreadnaught  that  Germany  launched,  England 
was  bound  to  launch  two.  Germany  built  the  Kiel 
Canal,  thus  gaining  a  direct  access  to  the  open  sea,  an 
advantage  that  she  had  not  before  possessed.  Just  be- 
fore 1914  she  enlarged  and  deepened  this  waterway  and 
completely  overhauled  her  fleet.  England  struggled 
with  her  labor  problems,  her  Irish  problem,  her  war  on 
poverty,  her  woman  suffrage  question,  and  the  burden 
of  taxation  demanded  by  the  building  of  dreadnoughts. 

War  had  been  talked  of  between  England  and  Ger- 
mariy  for  years,  but  few  people  paid  any  attention  to 
the  talk.  A  great  war  was  considered  an  impossibility, 
for  the  world  was  surely  too  old  and  too  wise  and  too 
humane  to  allow  such  a  thing.  And  England,  though 
with  determined  effort  she  continued  to  outbuild  the 
German  navy,  really  did  not  expect  war.  France,  how- 
ever, felt  a  dread  of  the  Germans  and  the  powerful 
German  military  machine  to  such  a  degree  that  she  in- 
creased her  standing  army  by  a  wider  military  training. 


Courtesy  of  Longmans,  Green  and  Co. 

The  Peace  Commissioners  of  the  United  States,  John  Jay,  John 

Adams,  Benjamin  Franklin,  and  Henry  Laurens,  Who  Met 

THE  British  Representativ^es  at  Paris,  and  Concluded  the 

Treaty  of  Independence,  1783, 

From  an  unfinished  portrait  by  Benjamin  West.     The  figure  behind  Frank- 
lin is  his  f/rarulson 


274  AMERICAN  DEMOCRACY 

That  increased  army  saved  France.  Belgium's  refusal 
to  break  her  neutrality  and  France's  prompt  mobiliza- 
tion held  back  the  German  army  until  help  came  from 
England. 

THE    GREAT    WAR    BEGINS 

One  day  in  June,  1914,  the  Crown  Prince  of  Austria, 
Francis  Ferdinand,  was  assassinated  in  the  Bosnian 
town  of  Serajevo.  Little  attention  was  paid  to  this  not 
unusual  happening  —  assassinations  in  the  Balkans 
were  common  affairs.  But  before  one  month  had 
passed,  Austria  had  seized  upon  the  occurrence  as  an 
excuse  to  declare  war  on  Serbia,  Russia  had  come  to 
Serbia's  relief,  and  then  in  quick  succession  the  members 
of  the  Triple  Alliance  and  the  Triple  Entente  lined  up 
their  forces  for  deadly  combat.  By  August  4,  1914, 
the  World  War  had  begun. 

The  story  of  the  mobilization  of  the  armies  of  Ger- 
many and  of  France  is  more  wonderful  than  any  fairy 
tale  ever  written.  When  Germany  declared  war,  every 
German  soldier  in  active  service  was  ready.  Every 
German  in  the  reserve  army  promptly  answered  the 
call  to  arms,  went  to  the  army  headquarters  nearest  his 
home,  gave  his  name  and  number,  removed  his  clothing, 
rolled  it  up,  and  attached  to  it  the  tag  he  took  from  the 
gray-green  uniform,  which  was  there  waiting  for  him. 
Having  put  on  the  uniform,  he  received  a  second  suit  of 
soldier's  clothes,  suspended  his  identification  tag  about 
his  neck,  and  presented  himself  for  his  arms.  These  re- 
ceived, he  proceeded  to  a  place  long  before  designated 
for  his  division.  He  was  in  the  field  within  forty-eight 
hours,  completely  equipped  and  ready  for  action. 

The  story  of  the  mobilization  of  the  French  army  is 
no  less  thrilling,  though  it  was  not  so  scientifically  effi- 


BEFORE  THE  GREAT  WAR       277 

cient.  The  fateful  signal  was  given  in  the  rural  towns 
by  semaphore.  At  the  summons,  men  dropped  their 
work,  placed  on  their  arms  the  bit  of  insignia  that  clas- 
sified them,  boarded  the  next  train,  and  were  carried  to 
the  point  of  mobilization.  The  little  towns,  the  pleas- 
ant villages,  the  fields  ready  for  the  harvest,  were 
cleared  of  men  able  to  bear  arms  within  forty-eight 
hours.  Not  an  outcry  was  heard,  only,  in  memory  of 
Alsace-Lorraine,  the  occasional  hushed  murmur,  "  La 
Ravanche." 

The  assassination  of  the  Crown  Prin^^e,  Francis  Ferd- 
inand, Austrian  heir-apparent,  in  an  obscure  Bosnian 
town,  was  but  the  match  that  touched  the  fuse  to  the 
eomplicated  and  closely  connected  series  of  deadly  ex- 
plosives that  had  been  laid  long  before  by  the  hands  of 
men  who  could  not  have  known  what  they  were  doing. 
The  Great  War  came  as  the  result  of  the  selfishness  and 
greedy  ambition  of  governments  directed  by  officials  who 
scarcely  considered  the  happiness  and  well-being  of  the 
people  who  were  to  bear  the  crushing  burden  of  the 
world  conflict. 


CHAPTER  XIV  \ 

THE  FOREIGN  POLICY  OF  THE 
UNITED  STATES 

The  great  rule  of  conduct  for  us,  in  regard  to  foreign  nations, 
is  in  extending  our  commercial  relations,  to  have  with  them  as 
little  Political  connection  as  possible.  So  far  as  we  have  already 
formed  engagements,  let  them  be  fulfilled  with  perfect  good 
faith  —  Here  let  us  stop. 

Europe  has  a  set  of  primary  interests,  which  to  us  have  none 
but  a  very  remote  relation.  .  .  .  'Tis  our  true  policy  to  steer  clear 
of  permanent  alliances  with  any  portion  of  the  foreign  world.  .  .  . 
Harmony,  liberal  intercourse  with  all  nations,  are  recommended  by 
policy,  humanity,  and  interest. 

George  Washington  (Farewell  Address). 

The  geographical  position  of  the  United  States  has 
been  fortunate  for  the  working  out  on  a  gigantic  scale 
of  the  hitherto  untried  experiment  of  government  of 
the  people,  by  the  people.  The  United  States  was 
able  to  make  the  most  of  this  natural  isolation  from 
Old  World  affairs,  because  she  had  developed  a  well- 
marked  ideal  of  foreign  policy,  which  has  given  her  to 
a  great  degree  unvexed  freedom  in  shaping  her  own 
course.  It  cannot  be  looked  upon  as  other  than  a 
happy  fact  that  in  the  past  this  country  had  been  con- 
tent to  mind  her  own  affairs  and  grow  up  alone,  even  at 
the  expense  of  being  called  provincial.  Far  removed 
from  the  conflicts  that  disturbed  Europe,  widely  differ- 
ing in  governmental  ideals,  it  may  be  said  that,  in  a 
«ense,  America  did  not  speak  the  language  of  Europe, 
nor  does  she  do  so  now. 

It  must  be  remembered   that  England,   from  whom 
278 


AMERICAN  FOREIGN  POLICY  279 

America  has  received  so  great  an  inheritance  of  con- 
stitutional form  and  spirit,  was  not  governmentally  the 
England  of  to-day  when  the  American  Constitution  was 
adopted.  At  that  time  there  was  no  political  power 
resting  in  the  great  mass  of  English  people.  On  the 
continent  of  Europe,  even  after  the  French  Revolution, 
there  was  less  of  political  freedom  than  in  England. 
The  United  States,  therefore,  had  little  reason  for  be- 
coming enmeshed  in  what  Washington  characterized  as 
"  the  toils  of  European  ambition,  rivalship,  interest,  or 
caprice." 

The  settled  policy  of  the  United  States  in  the  con- 
duct of  foreign  affairs  has  been  in  the  main  reasonable 
and  sincere,  although  sometimes  its  actual  working  out 
has  been  more  or  less  indefinite.  In  a  broad  sense  the 
foreign  relations  of  the  United  States  have  been  founded 
on  five  or  six  main  policies :  friendly  encouragement  of 
popular  government  in  other  countries,  neutrality,  free- 
dom of  the  seas,  the  Monroe  Doctrine,  international  ar- 
bitration and  "  the  open  door."  That  is,  the  United 
States  has  encouraged  and,  as  soon  as  possible,  recog- 
nized countries  seeking  to  set  up  a  republican  form  of 
government;  she  has  maintained  neutrality  while  wars 
in  which  she  was  not  directly  concerned  were  taking 
place ;  from  the  beginning  also,  this  country  has  denied 
the  right  of  any  foreign  power  to  interfere  with  legiti- 
mate commerce  on  the  high  seas ;  since  the  promulga- 
tion of  the  Monroe  Doctrine,  she  has  taken  a  stand 
against  European  colonization  in  the  New  World  and 
against  foreign  interference  in  American  politics  ;  when- 
ever it  has  been  possible,  disputes  with  foreign  coun- 
tries have  been  settled  by  arbitration,  and  finally  the 
"  Open  Door  "  policy  calls  for  a  free  hand  In  trading 
with  undeveloped  countries  such  as  China. 


280.  AMERICAN  DEMOCRACY 

ENCOURAGEMENT    OF    POPULAR    GOVERNMENT 

The  United  States  has  frequently  expressed  her  sym- 
pathy and  given  her  support  to  democratic  movements 
in  other  countries  and  has  even  interfered  in  one  or 
two  cases  where  help  seemed  necessary  to  forward  the 
cause  of  democracy.  Thus  her  moral  assistance  and 
influence  have  greatly  aided  the  spread  of  government 
by  the  people ;  for  while  it  is  true  that  the  United  States 
has  always  refrained  from  taking  sides  in  the  internal 
quarrels  in  foreign  countries,  at  the  same  time  her 
leading  men  have  consistently  shown  a  warm  interest  in 
movements  toward  popular  government.  From  the 
first  days  of  our  national  life  there  has  been  mutual 
sympathy  between  liberal-minded  Europeans  and  Amer- 
icans. "  My  anxious  recollections,  my  sympathetic 
feelings,  and  my  best  wishes  are  irresistibly  excited 
whenever  in  any  country  I  see  an  oppressed  nation  un- 
furl the  banners  of  freedom,"  was  Washington's  stately 
way  of  expressing  sympathy  for  those  who  sought  polit- 
ical liberty.  President  Monroe  and  Henry  Clay  en- 
couraged not  only  the  republics  of  South  America,  but 
also  the  revolutionists  in  Europe,  especially  those  of 
Greece. 

The  United  States  was  an  asylum  for  Carl  Schurz 
and  other  disappointed  German  liberals  who  came  here 
after  the  failure  of  the  Frankfort  Convention  to  secure 
a  popular  government  for  Germany  in  1848.  An  Amer- 
ican ship  was  sent  to  fetch  the  Hungarian  patriot, 
Kossuth,  to  the  United  States  after  Hungary's  unsuc- 
cessful attempt  to  gain  independence  in  1849.  Daniel 
Webster  at  the  time,  replying  warmly  to  a  remon- 
strance* from  the  Austrian  government,  clearly  stated 
the  American  position.     He  said:     "When  the  United 


.AMERICAN  FOREIGN  POLICY  281 

States  behold  the,  people  of  foreign  countries  .  .  .  spon- 
taneously moving  toward  the  adoption  of  institutions 
like  their  .own,  it  surely  cannot  be  expected  of  them  to 
remain  wholly  indifferent  spectators."  Political  'refu- 
gees have  always  found  safety  in  the  United  States  pro- 
vided they  did  not  hold  views  inimical  to  the  govern- 
ment. 

NEUTRALITY    AND    ISOLATION 

Immediately  after  Washington  had  been  chosen  Pres- 
ident, the  French  Revolution  broke  loose  upon  the 
world.  In  its  first  aspects  the  movement  found  many 
sympathizers  in  America,  but  its  later  developments 
frightened  and  repelled  even  those  most  friendly  to 
popular  government.  As  affairs  across  the  Atlantic 
went  from  bad  to  worse,  the  statesmen  of  this  country 
saw  clearly  that  the  problems  of  Europe  were  not  those 
of  a  government  founded  on  the  consent  of  the  gov- 
erned. It  was  evident  also  that  the  United  States  was 
too  weak  to  stand  up  against  the  established  govern- 
ments of  tlie  Old  World,  although  at  the  same  time 
they  sincerely  believed  that  the  American  ideal  of  gov- 
ernment was  superior  to  the  European  ideal. 

Washington,  sagacious  and  far-seeing,  declared  that 
the  United  States  should  have  no  connection  with  Euro- 
pean politics,  "  other  than  merely  commercial.'*  John 
Adams  set  forth  the  same  idea.  Jefferson  expressed 
the  feeling  of  America  in  these  words :  "  We  have  a  per- 
fect horror  at  anything  like  connecting  ourselves  with 
the  politics  of  Europe.  They  have  so  many  other  in- 
terests different  from  ours,  that  we  must  avoid  being 
entangled  with  them." 

This  intention  of  aloofness  was  finally  made  very 
plain  in  Washington's  policy  of  neutrality.  On  the 
occasion  of  the  war  between  England  and  France  in 
1793,  Washington,  as  President,  declared  the  neutrality 


282  AMERICAN  DEMOCRACY 

of  the  United  States  and  enforced  it  by  the  first  Neu- 
trality Act  of  the  United  States,  June  5,  1794.  This 
act  made  it  an  offense  to  enlist  in  the  service  of  a  bel- 
ligerent nation  while  in  the  territory  of  the  United 
States,  to  fit  out  or  arm  a  vessel  intended  to  commit 
hostilities  on  a  belligerent,  or  to  prepare  expeditions  to 
be  carried  on  from  the  soil  of  the  United  States  against 
a  belligerent. 

Washington  emphasized  and  practically  fixed  this 
policy  of  isolation  in  his  Farewell  Address.  He  ex- 
pressed his  ideas  on  that  subject  definitely  when  he  said, 
"  The  great  rule  of  conduct  for  us  in  regard  to  foreign 
nations  is,  'in  extending  our  commercial  relations,  to 
have  with  them  as  little  political  connections  as  pos- 
sible. So  far  as  we  have  already  formed  engagements, 
let  them  be  fulfilled  with  perfect  good  faith.  Here 
let  us  stop."  "  It  is  our  true  policy  to  steer  clear  of 
permanent  alliances  with  any  portion  of  the  foreign 
world.  .  .  .  We  may  safely  trust  to  temporary  alli- 
ances for  extraordinary  emergencies." 

Growing  out  of  this  determination  on  the  part  of 
the  young  Republic  to  keep  herself  clear  of  European 
politics,  came  the  doctrine  of  European  non-intervention 
in  American  affairs  —  a  policy  set  up  for  Europe  by . 
America  herself.  Before  the  United  States  had  lived 
many  years-,  it  became  evident  that  she  could  not  allow 
unfriendly  European  powers  to  gain  controlling  in- 
fluence over  her  nearest  neighbors.  The  government 
was  displeased  when  France  gained  Haiti  in  1795 ;  and 
when  Louisiana  passed  into  Napoleon's  hands,  Jeffer- 
son proposed  that  the  United  States  "  marry  the  Eng- 


AMERICAN  FOREIGN  POLICY  283 

lish  fleet  and  nation  "  to  ward  off  the  power  of  France. 
But  the  alHance  was  not  formed,  for  the  far-seeing 
Napoleon  sold  the  vast  Louisiana  territory  to  the 
United  States  with  the  remark,  "  I  have  given  England 
a  maritime  rival  that  will  sooner  or  later  humble  her 
pride.'*  Not  long  after  this,  the  United  States  gained 
possession  of  Florida,  which  had  nominally  been  under 
the  control  of  Spain.  In  so  doing,  she  removed  by  one 
more    step    European   influence   in   North   America. 

The  gulf  between  Europe  and  America  widened  per- 
ceptibly after  the  Battle  of  Waterloo,  for  Europe  had 
fallen  under  the  control  of  the  strongest  and  most 
eff*ective  international  union  the  world  had  ever  seen. 
This  league,  the  Quadruple  Alliance  —  miscalled  in 
America  the  Holy  Alliance  —  was  composed  of  Austria, 
Prussia,  Russia,  and  England. 

It  had  for  its  main  purpose  the  preservation  of  the 
peace  of  Europe,  by  keeping  things  "  in  status  quo," 
that  is,  exactly  as  they  had  been  settled  by  the  Con- 
gress of  Vienna.  Metternich,  prime  minister  of  Austria, 
was  the  ruling  spirit  of  the  league.  About  1820  when 
the  league  became  unusually  oppressive  and  reaction- 
ary, England  gradually  withdrew  from  its  councils, 
while  France  was  admitted. 

THE    MONROE    DOCTRINE 

On  the  American  side  of  the  Atlantic,  in  the  mean- 
time, things  were  not  remaining  as  they  had  been,  not 
even  in  South  America,  which  before  1821,  with  the 
exception  of  Brazil  and  the  British,  Dutch,  and  French 
Guianas,  had  been  divided  into  Spanish  colonies.  Be- 
tween 1810  and  1820,  under  the  leadership,  first  of  San 
Martin    and   later   of    Simon    Bolivar,    these   colonies. 


284  AMERICAN  DEMOCRACY 

which  had  been  left  to  themselves  during  the  Napoleonic 
period,  began  to  set  themselves  up  as  independent  re- 
publics. 

The  United  States  fearing,  that  having  cast  off  the 
Spanish  yoke,  these  weak  states  would  fall  a  prey  to 
more  powerful  foreign  powers,  began  to  talk  of  formally 
recognizing  the  new  South  Ame^rican  Republics.  As 
early  as  1817,  Henry  Clay,  who  was  largely  responsible 
for  our  policy  of  friendship  to  South  America,  urged 
recognition,  and  in  1821,  the  United  States  officially 
recognized  Buenos  Ayres,  Chile,  Mexico,  Colombia, 
Brazil,  and  Guatemala. 

At  this,  the  Quadruple  Alliance  became  dangerously 
active  and  proposed  calling  a  European  conference  on 
American  affairs.  Such  a  suggestion  boded  no  good 
for  political  freedom  anywhere.  George  Canning,  the 
British  Minister  of  Foreign  Affairs^  helped  the  United 
States  and  the  South  American  Republics  at  this  junc- 
ture, by  expressing  himself  as  willing  to  assist  in  set- 
ting forth  a  policy  for  American  matters. 

Nor  was  the  only  difficulty  concerning  South  Amer- 
ican affairs,  the  territory  to  the  northwest  was  also 
under  dispute.  The  southern  boundaries  of  the  Oregon 
country,  as  it  was  called  at  the  time,  had  been  definitely 
fixed  in  1818  and  the  country  jointly  occupied  by  the 
United  States  and  Great  Britain,  but  the  northern 
boundaries  had  remained  undefined.  In  1821  Russia 
became  aggressive  in  the  region  of  Alaska  and  the  Czar 
issued  an  Imperial  ukase  proclaiming  that  the  Pacific 
Coast  as  far  south  as  the  fifty-first  parallel  belonged  to 
Russia  and  forbidding  any  one  to  approach  it  nearer 
than  one  hundred  miles. 

John  Quincy  Adams,  at  this  time  Monroe*s  Secretary 
of   State,   came   out   flatly   in   his   instructions   to   the 


286  AMERICAN  DEMOCRACY 

United  States  minister  to  Russia  to  the  effect  that  he 
make  it  plain  to  the  Czai*  that,  the  management  of  both 
American  continents  must  be  left  in  American  hands. 
Dispatches  and  messages  were  exchanged,  and  Adams 
prepared  to  defend  American  interests.  Here  Can- 
ning stepped  in  and  proposed  a  joint  declaration  of 
Great  Britain  and  the  United  States  favoring  a  policy 
of  non-interference  by  European  powers  in  American 
affairs.  Adams  opposed  the  joint  declaration  against 
all  the  other  members  of  the  Cabinet.  Even  Jefferson 
and  Madison,  who  had  been  consulted,  advised  the  joint 
action.  But  Adams  pointed  out  that  such  a  declara- 
tion would  entangle  the  United  States  in  European  af- 
fairs in  such  a  way  as  to  make  it  hard  to  insist  upon 
future  independent  action.  Adams,  who  had  no  relish 
for  coming  in  "  as  a  cock  boat  in  the  wake  of  a  British 
man-of-war  "  won  the  day.  If  he  had  not  carried  his 
point,  tlie'  United  States  to-day  might  have  had  serious 
difficulty  with  European  powers  over  acquiring  Texas, 
New  Mexico,  California,  Porto  Rico,  and  Panama,  and 
might  even  have  found  herself  practically  surrounded 
by  the  colonies  of  European  nations. 

Finally  it  was  decided  that  the  attitude  of  the  United 
States,  in  the  question  of  European  interference  in 
American  affairs  should  be  dealt  with  in  President  Mon- 
roe's message  to  Congress.  Accordingly,  in  the  polite 
and  formal  language  of  diplomacy,  "  The  Monroe  Doc- 
trine "  announced  to  Congress  and  to  the  world  that 
thereafter  the  United  States  would  allow  no  European 
power  to  establish  colonies  in  the  New  World  nor 
to  interfere  in  American  politics.  It  further  declared 
that  the  United  States  intended  to  pursue  its  cus- 
tomary policy  of  non-interference  in  European 
affairs. 


AMERICAN  FOREIGN  POLICY  287 

In  other  words,  the  Monroe  Doctrine  after  announc- 
ing that  all  American  powers  were  closely  related  in 
spirit,  served  notice  on  foreign  powers  that  henceforth 
the  New  World  was  determined  to  carry  out  its  political 
experiments  in  its  own  way.     It  was  a  clear  statement 


John  Quincy  Adams 

As  Secretary  of  State  lie  caused  the  issuance  of  the  Monroe  Doc- 
trine and  kept  the  United  States  clear  of  foreign  alliances;  as  a 
United  States  Representative  after  his  term  as  president,  he  fought 
for  freedom  to  petition  for  redress  of  grievances  and  gave  Lincoln 
a  verbal  precedent  for  freeing  the  slaves. 

of  the  theory  that  there  were  in  the  world  two  political 
systems,  a  monarchial  system  founded  on  military  prin^ 
cipleSy  and  a  republican  system  founded  on  the  will  of 
the  people,  and  that  these  two  sets  of  principles  hence- 
forth would  confine  themselves  each  to  its  own  sphere. 
The  ^lonroe  Doctrine  placed  the  two  systems  before 
the  world. 


288  AMERICAN  DEMOCRACY 

The  statement  of  the  Monroe  Doctrine  was  one  thing; 
its  carrying  out  has  been  and  is  another,  and  an  en- 
tirely different  thing.  For  as  the  years  have  passed 
the  Monroe  Doctrine,  like  the  Constitution  of  the  United 
States,  has  been  changed  and  re-interpreted.  The 
United  States  has  never  at  any  time  used  armed  inter- 
vention to  prevent  the  numerous  South  American  revo- 
lutions. As  has  been  her  policy  in  all  such  cases,  she 
has  recognized  the  "  de  facto  "  government,  that  is  the 
government  that  was  actually  in  power.  She  has  in 
general  allowed  the  republics  to  the  South  to  organize 
and  reorganize  without  the  interference  of  herself  or 
others,  for  this  attitude  has  been  a  sufficiently  strong 
guarantee  to  keepj  Europe  out  of  South  American 
affairs. 

While  the  Monroe  Doctrine  has  kept  European 
powers  from  meddling  in  affairs  on  this  side  of  the 
Atlantic,  it  has  not  hindered  the  United  States  from 
acquiring  Florida,  Texas,  California,  New  Mexico,  and 
Porto  Rico,  nor  from  establishing  protectorates  over 
Cuba,  the  Republic  of  Panama,  and  certain  Central 
American  countries.  In  fact,  the  United  States  has 
been  accused  of  having  warned  every  one  else  off  the 
American  premises  that  she  might  herself  have  a  free 
hand. 

The  question  as  to  the  justice  of  this  charge  is  not  a 
simple  one;  the  United  States  undoubtedly  is  right  in 
protecting  her  own  interests  when  those  interests  are 
threatened  by  the  weaknesses  or  aggressions  of  other 
nations.  The  South  American  republics  have  not  al- 
ways had  stable  governments  that  represent  the  will  of 
the  people.     In  the  matter  of  the  Panama  Canal,  it  be- 


AMERICAN  FOREIGN  POLICY  289 

came  of  the  utmost  importance  to  the  United  States  and 
to  other  nations  that  permanent,  well-established  con- 
trol be  set  up  in  order  that  the  benefits  of  the  great 
water-way  might  be  guaranteed  to  the  shipping  of  the 
whole  world.  That  much  every  one  must  grant.  How 
we  acomplished  our  purposes  may  be  a  theme  for  dis- 
agreement, but  it  is  to  be  hoped  that  the  long-delayed 
treaty  negotiated  with  Colombia  in  1921  with  its  pay- 
ment of  25  miUion  dollars,  has  settled  the  whole  question 
of  Panama  and  Colombia  on  a  basis  satisfactory  to 
all  the  countries  concerned. 

It  is  also  to  be  noted  that  though  the  Monroe  Doc- 
trine declare!  that  the  United  States  would  not  take 
part  in  political  affairs  outside  of  its  own  American 
sphere,  that  statement  of  policy  did  not  prevent  the 
United  States  from  acquiring  the  Philippine  and 
Hawaiian  Islands.  Neither  did  it  hinder  the  United 
States  from  acting  with  European  powers  in  the  affairs 
relating  to  the  Open  Door  in  China  in  1900,  nor  in  the 
Moroccan  troubles  concerning  rival  claims  of  France 
and  Italy  in  Northern  Africa  in  1906.  Yet  in  all  these 
instances  the  intervention  has,  it  seems  sure,  been  for 
the  common  good  of  all  concerned.  The  whole  question 
of  the  Monroe  Doctrine  should  be  thoughtfully  studied 
by  all  intelligent  Americans  as  a  guide  to  our  future 
course  in  world  affairs. 

The  Monroe  Doctrine,  like  the  Declaration  of  Inde- 
pendence, has  been  thought  of  by  Americans  with  par- 
donable pride  as  a  policy  founded  on  good-will  toward 
other  nations.  But,  as  in  the  case  of  the  Declaration, 
its  working-out  has  not  always  been  carried  forward 
in  accordance  with  the  ideals  set  forth.  Its  application 
has  sometimes  seemed  to  be  directed  by  perhaps  too 
large  a  degree  of  national  self-interest.  However,  it 
is  generally  conceded  that  the  United  States,  for  her 


AMERICAN  FOREIGN  POLICY  291 

own  sake  and  for  the  sake  of  the  rest  of  the  world, 
must  hold  and  keep  a  position  of  controlling  influence 
in  American  affairs,  and  while  we  feel  that  we  must  pro- 
tect our  own  "  permanent  interest  "  on  this  side  of  the 
water,  this  attitude  is  not  out  of  keeping  with  an  honest 
desire  on  the  part  of  the  United  States  to  give  its  near 
neighbors  to  the  South  a  chance  to  exercise  government 
of  their  own  choosing  and  for  their  own  common  good. 

FREEDOM    OF    THE    SEAS 

The  United  States  has  always  insisted,  in  theory  at 
least,  on  "  The  Freedom  of  the  Seas."  There  has  been 
a  good  deal  of  discussion  and  many  misunderstandings 
that  have  led  to  war  over  the  meaning  of  this  term.  An 
old  book  entitled  "  Mare  Liberum  "  defined  "  The  Free^ 
dom  of  the  Seas  "  as  meaning  that  the  "  air,  running 
water  and  the  sea  are  common  to  all."  In  the  early 
days  the  Carthaginians  forbade  all  the  other  nations 
to  use  the  Mediterranean  Sea.  If  a  Greek  sailor  was 
captured  in  any  part  of  the  Mediterranean,  he  was  at 
once  dropped  into  its  waters  with  the  idea  that  he  would 
never  reach  land.  After  the  discovery  of  Amer- 
ica, Portugal  and  Spain  contended  so  fiercely  for  the 
exclusive  right  to  sail  the  high  seas  that  Pope  Alexander 
VI  in  order  to  settle  the  dispute  drew  a  "  Great  Line  of 
Demarcation  "  from  north  to  south  through  the  newly 
discovered  world,  giving  Portugal  all  of  the  land  east 
of  the  line  and  Spain  all  of  the  land  west  of  it. 

In  the  eighteenth  century,  there  developed  a  great 
deal  of  continental  antagonism  to  the  English  sea- 
power,  which  had  grown  steadily  since  the  little  Eng- 
lish fleet  under  Howard,  Hawkins,  and  Drake,  had  tri- 
umphed over  the  ponderous  Spanish  galleons  of  the 
"  Invincible     Armada."     Holland,    having    become    a 


292  AMERICAN  DEMOCRACY 

great  carrier-nation,  claimed  that  "  free  ships  make 
free  goods,"  and  objected  to  the  EngHsh  practice  of 
seizing  and  searching  ships  for  English  sailors  and 
English  goods. 

This  doctrine  was  put  into  the  Declaration  of  Paris 
in  1856.  It  abolished  privateering,  and  provided  that 
an  enemy's  goods,  with  the  exception  of  actual  war  ma- 
terial, known  as  contraband,  might  be  carried  under  a 
neutral  flag.  The  question  of  what  goods  should  be 
considered  contraband  was  at  first  a  comparatively 
simple  one,  but  since  the  methods  of  warfare  have 
changed,  the  list  has  become  alarmingly  inclusive  —  a 
harmless-looking  bale  of  cotton  having  become  con- 
traband, owing  to  its  use  in  the  making  of  high  explo- 
sives. 

The  United  States  has  always  been  the  champion  of 
the  idea  that  private  property,  unless  contraband, 
should  be  safe  from  capture  on  the  high  seas  even  in 
war  times.  During  Jefferson's  administration,  trade  in 
the  Mediterranean  was  molested  by  the  Barbary  pirates, 
and  the  president  ordered  our  men-of-war*  to  clear  the 
waterway  of  these  sea-robbers  for  the  benefit  of  all  the 
nations.  The  War  of  1812  between  the  United  States 
and  Great  Britain  grew  out  of  a  practice  directly  in- 
volving our  policy  with  reference  to  the  "  Freedom  of 
the  Seas,"  for  British  ships  repeatedly  overhauled  the 
vessels  of  other  nations  for  the  purpose  of  taking  sailors 
from  them  and  forcing  them  into  the  British  navy. 
The  United  States  resented  this  practice  and  virtually 
put  a  stop  to  it  by  this  war,  although,  strange  to  say, 
the  treaty  of  peace  which  concluded  the  struggle  made 
no  mention  whatever  of  freedom  of  the  seas. 

In  regard  to  the  present  meaning  and  application 
of  the  term  "  Freedom  of  the  Seas,"  there  is  a  wide 


AMERICAN  FOREIGN  POLICY  293 

difference  of  opinion  among  nations,  particularly  iii 
time  of  war.  Since  the  adoption  of  free  trade,  Great 
Britain  has  practised  a  liberal  policy  in  her  treatment 
of  other  nations  which  use  her  harbors  and  numerous 
ports  of  call.  For  the  most  part,  she  claims  no  ad- 
vantage over  the  ships  that  land  at  her  docks  in  any 
port  of  the  globe.  The  expenses  of  keeping  up  the 
landing  facilities  are  borne  almost  entirely  by  Great 
Britain  and  equal  tolls  are  charged  on  all  ships,  regard- 
less of  nationality. 

In  the  winter  of  1908-1909,  Lord  Grey,  then  the 
British  foreign  secretary,  called  at  London  a  confer- 
ence of  the  leading  maritime  nations  of  the  world  for 
the  purpose  of  fixing  the  principles  of  prize  law,  for 
the  government  of  an  international  prize  court.  This 
conference  drew  up  the  Declaration  of  London,  embody- 
ing a  code  of  rules  regulating  the  rights  of  neutrals  and 
belligerents  with  respect  to  neutral  commerce. 

While  the  Declaration  of  London  did  not  entirely 
meet  with  the  approval  of  the  United  States,  it  was 
considered  a  decided  move  in  the  way  of  securing  greater 
justice  and  stability  among  the  maritime  nations  of 
the  world.  Consequently,  our  government  agreed  to  its 
terms.  But  when  it  came  before  the  British  Parlia- 
ment for  ratification,  it  was  rejected,  Parliament  stipu- 
lating that  before  signing  a  treaty  which  further  lim- 
ited Great  Britain's  sea  power,  compensating  limita- 
tions of  land  power  should  be  agreed  upon.  Germany, 
of  course,  refused  to  limit  her  military  strength  and 
the  matter  was  left  unsettled  at  the  time  of  the  out- 
break of  war  in  1914. 

In  the  very  first  days  of  the  Great  War,  Secretary 
of  State  Bryan,  seeking  to  protect  the  interests  of  neu- 
tral nations,  dispatched  an  identical  note  to  the  Powers 


294  AMERICAN  DEMOCRACY 

at  war,  proposing  that  the  code  of  rules  for  neutral 
nations  embodied  in  the  Declaration  of  London  be  ac- 
cepted by  all  nations  for  the  duration  of  the  war.  But 
as  the  British  Government  feared  to  decrease  the  strik- 
ing power  of  the  British  Navy,  the  reply  from  that 
country  was  unsatisfactory  and  consequently  Germany 
went  about  her  preparations  for  ruthless  submarine 
warfare. 

During  the  Great  War,  Great  Britain  still  claimed 
as  a  war  measure  the  right  to  search  ships.  She  not 
only  searched  and  detained  ships  in  her  ports  pending 
the  examination  of  their  cargoes,  but  censored  all  the 
mail  that  they  carried.  This  was  extremely  annoying 
to  the  citizens  of  the  United  States  and  occasioned  a 
protest  from  the  government,  but  as  property  only  was 
involved  and  lives  were  never  put  in  danger  by  the  atti- 
tude of  Great  Britain  the  administration  did  not  press 
the  matter.  Furthermore  arbitration  treaties  made  it 
possible  to  settle  all  cases  of  damage  between  the  two 
countries  after  the  cessation  of  hostilities. 

No  arbitration  treaties  existed  between  the  United 
States  and  the  German  Government  by  which  questions 
might  be  settled  when  the  war  was  over.  At  the  be- 
ginning of  the  war  Germany  did  not  question  the  neu- 
tral rights  of  the  United  States,  but  when  a  contro- 
versy did  arise,  it  was  extremely  serious.  Germany 
resented  the  action  of  the  United  States  in  trading  in 
munitions  with  the  belligerent  powers,  and  while  she 
allowed  our  legal  right  to  do  so,  she  made  her  objec- 
tions on  moral  and  humanitarian  grounds.  The 
United  States,  however,  did  not  recognize  the  justice  of 
her  claims,  and  continued  to  allow  shipping  to  pass  un- 
hampered between  her  ports  and  any  other  ports  that 
could  be  kept  open  to  neutral  navigation. 


AMERICAN  FOREIGN  POLICY  295 

Presently,  the  German  Government  announced  that 
her  submarines  would  begin  ruthless  warfare  in  vio- 
lation of  all  accepted  principles  of  International  Law. 
This  intention  of  restricting  freedom  of  the  seas  was 
made  plain  when  the  German  ambassador  on  January 
31,  1917,  informed  the  state  department  that  American 
passenger  steamers  would  be  "  permitted  "  to  sail  once  a 
week  provided  they  carried  no  contraband  and  provided 
each  ship  was  marked  as  directed  by  the  Imperial  Ger- 
man Government.  The  specifications  for  marking  were 
as  follows : 

"  The  steamers  are  marked  in  the  following  way, 
which  must  be  allowed  to  other  vessels  in  American 
ports;  on  ship's  hull,  the  superstructure,  three  vertical 
stripes,  one  meter  wide,  each  to  be  painted  alternately 
white  and  red  and  the  stern,  the  American  flag.  Care 
should  be  taken  that,  during  the  dark,  national  flag  and 
painted  marks  are  easily  recognizable  from  a  distance, 
and  that  the  boats  are  well  lighted  throughout." 

The  question  of  Freedom  of  the  Seas  is  a  big  one ;  it 
includes  the  question  of  freedom  of  waterways  and 
canals  that  reach  into  the  hearts  of  countries ;  it  in- 
cludes the  question  of  the  neutralization  of  great  inter- 
ocean  waterways  such  as  the  Suez  Canal,  the  Panama 
Canal,  the  Dardanelles,  and  Kiel  Canal.  The  people 
of  the  world  look  forward  eagerly  to  the  time  when  a 
league  of  free  peoples  will  so  regulate  the  commerce  of 
the  world  that  the  waterways  of  land  and  sea  will  be 
used  for  the  benefit  and  happiness  of  all. 

ARBITRATION 

Another  line  of  foreign  policy  that  the  United  States 
has  pursued  from  the  very  beginning  of  the  Republic  has 
been  the  settling  of  moot  questions  by  the  "  umpirage  of 


296 


AxMERICAN  DEMOCRACY 


reason  rather  than  force  " —  that  is,  by  arbitration. 
The  first  practical  application  of  the  principle  in  af- 
fairs of  government  took  place  when  the  thirteen  states 
agreed  to  disarm  and  submit  all  their  disputes  to  federal 
courts.     Since  that  time,  the  United  States  has  tried 


■  t 

■f 

■".M.'y.'L'i  LmH 

II^Klfe^iffm 

Pan-Amertcax  Buildixg,  Washington,  D.  C. 

The  official  home  of  the  Pan-American  Union,  an  organization 
of  twenty-one  American  republics  for  the  furtiierance  of  com- 
merce, friendly  intercourse  and  mutual  understanding. 


—  often  vainly  —  to  convert  other  states  to  her  be- 
lief in  the  settlement  of  disputes  between  nations  by  a 
court  of  outside  powers. 

Since  1794,  the  United  States  has  had  arbitration 
treaties  with  England.  Between  1794  and  1872  ninety 
international   disputes,   in   each   of  which   the   United 


AMERICAN  FOREIGN  POLICY  297 

States  was  a  party,  were  settled  by  arbitration.  The 
most  noted  case  was  that  of  the  "  Alabama  Claims." 
The  United  States  set  up  a  claim  against  Great  Britain 
for  destruction  of  property  by  a  ship  that  had  been 
built  in  Great  Britain  and  sold  to  the  Confederacy  dur- 
ing the  AVar  of  Secession.  The  matter  was  given  over 
to  the  arbitration  court  of  neutral  powers  which  met  at 
Geneva,  in  Switzerland.  An  award  of  fifteen  million 
dollars  was  made  in  favor  of  the  United  States,  and 
Great  Britain,  though  the  amount  seemed  to  her  exor- 
bitant paid  the  sum  named.  In  practically  all  cases 
that  have  gone  before  recognized  international  arbitra- 
tion courts  the  disputants  have  accepted  the  decisions 
arrived  at. 

The  question  of  arbitration  has  been  a  subject  of  dis- 
cussion at  the  Hague  Conferences,  where  at  each  of  the 
three  meetings,  the  delegates  from  the  United  States 
tried  earnestly  to  secure  a  general  treaty  of  compul- 
sory arbitration.  But  Germany,  while  admitting  the 
justice  of  the  idea,  coldly  wet-blanketed  the  whole  prop- 
osition because  it  included  a  mutual  limitation  of  the 
army  and  navy  of  all  nations  which  entered  into  the 
agreement.  Her  excuse  was  that  she  could  not  find  a 
"  formula  "  to  express  her  views. 

Having  failed  in  securing  an  international  arbitra- 
tion treaty,  the  United  States,  notably  under  the  lead- 
ership of  Secretary  Bryan,  set  to  work  to  make  separate 
arbitration  treaties  with  the  various  nations.  Before 
the  end  of  1914,  thirty  such  agreements  had  been  made, 
twenty  of  which  had  been  ratified  and  proclaimed. 

THE    OPEN    DOOR 

The  "  Open  Door  "  policy  in  dealing  with  backward 
countries  was  introduced  into  international  relations  by 


298  AMERICAN  DEMOCRACY 

Secretary  of  State  Hay  in  1899.  The  term  as  first 
used  referred  to  the  equalization  of  opportunity  in 
China  to  all  foreign  nations.  Before  1899  Russia, 
Germany,  and  England  had  succeeded  in  establishing 
well  defined  "  spheres  of  influence  "  in  China  and  there 
was  danger  that  all  other  powers  would  be  entirely  shut 
out.  The  United  States,  through  Secretary  Hay,  in- 
sisted that  all  Chinese  ports  should  be  left  open  to  all 
the  powers  of  the  world  on  equal  terms.  The  powers 
that  were  occupying  parts  of  China  rather  reluctantly 
agreed  to  the  "  so  just  and  fair  "  proposal  of  the  United 
States  'provided  that  all  the  other  powers  consented  to 
the  arrangement.  Having  received  these  provisional 
acceptances.  Secretary  Hay  dispatched  copies  to  each 
of  the  interested  nations  and  thus  established  the  Open 
Door  policy  which  virtually  blocked  the  threatened  dis- 
memberment of  China.  The  Open  Door  policy  has  been 
followed  by  the  several  nations  in  the  west  coast  of 
Africa  and  by  France  in  Morocco. 

OUR    FUTURE    FOREIGX    POLICY 

When  the  Great  War  startled  all  the  world,  the 
United  States  found  it  hard  to  break  loose  from  her 
early  traditions  and  enter  into  the  European  struggle. 
But  when  at  last  she  did  enter  the  world  strife,  she 
stood  firmly  on  her  traditional  principles,  allying  her- 
self with  no  foreign  power,  but  bending  every  effort  to 
preserve  the  right  to  carry  on  and  develop  her  chosen 
form  of  government.  In  the  words  of  President  Wil- 
son, she  sought  "  to  make  the  world  safe  for  democ- 
racy." 

The  Great  War  being  over,  largely  because  of  the 
entrance  of  the  United  States  into  the  maelstrom  of 
world  affairs,  it  is  not  likely  that  our  nation  can  remain 


AMERICAN  FOREIGN  POLICY  299 

aloof  from  the  rest  of  the  world.  We  must,  in  fact, 
take  our  stand  among  the  nations  and  use  our  influence 
not  merely  in  a  negative  but  in  a  positive,  constructive 
way.  An  American  political  economist  recently  laid 
down  certain  principles  for  the  establishment  of  a 
definite  and  progressive  foreign  policy  which  may  be 
briefly  stated  as  follows:  Our  future  foreign  policy 
must  first  of  all  represent  public  sentiment,  then  it  must 
be  permanent  and  continuous,  must  be  based  on 
national  honor  and  international  justice,  must  respect 
the  sovereignty  of  small  nations,  must  honor  the  spirit 
as  well  as  the  letter  of  treaties,  must  merit  the  confi- 
dence of  the  South  American  Republics,  must  aim  to 
avoid  all  permanent  occupation  of  territory  not  our 
own  and  to  reduce  interference  in  the  aff*airs  of  other 
nations  to  a  minimum,  and  finally,  while  it  must  be  al- 
truistic and  generous,  it  must  not  neglect  to  promote 
and  protect  American  investments   abroad. 


CHAPTER  XV 
CITIZENSHIP  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES 

While  there's  a  grief  to  seek  redress, 

Or  balance  to  adjust, 
Where  weighs  our  living  manhood  less 

Than  Mammon's  vilest  dust, — 
While  there's  a  right  to  need  my  vote, 

A  wrong  to  sweep  away, 
Up !  clouted  knee  and  ragged  coat ! 

A  man's  a  man  to-day. 

Whitlier,  The  Poor  Voter  on  Election  Day. 

Citizenship  is  an  all-important  matter  for  Ameri- 
cans. In  a  Government  like  ours,  "  of  the  people,  for 
the  people,  and  by  the  people,"  the  individuals  must 
have  clear  ideas  of  the  principles  and  nature  of  demo- 
cratic government,  that  they  may  have  the  "  will  to 
succeed  "  in  carrying  on  the  great  experiment  which 
this  nation  has  undertaken.  Citizens  of  the  United 
States  must  consciously  accept  their  citizenship  with 
its  rights  and  duties,  and  perform  its  obligations  sol- 
emnly, with  care  to  combine  in  just  proportions  their 
exercise  of  individual  liberty  and  due  consideration 
for  the  common  good. 

That  the  American  citizen  may  be  a  consciously  ac- 
tive participant  in  the  affairs  of  government,  he  must 
be  able  to  answer  to  his  own  satisfaction  the  following 
questions,  among  others: — What  is  the  source  of  citi- 
zenship.'' Does  a  citizen  owe  allegiance  to  the  state  in 
which  he  lives  or  to  the  United  States  .^^     Who  is  the 

American   citizen.''     What  are  his  rights .'^     What  are 

300 


CITIZENSHIP  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES     301 

his  duties?  How  can  he,  a  single  person,  have  any  in- 
fluence on  the  immense  and  extremely  complicated 
machine  that  carries  on  the  government? 

ALLEGIANCE    TO    STATE    AND    NATION 

To  begin  with  the  first  two  questions:  What  is  the 
source  of  citizenship,  and  to  whom  does  the  citizen  owe 
allegiance?  Citizenship  has  a  dual  source  and  citizens 
have  a  dual  allegiance.  On  the  one  hand,  the  Federal 
Government  is  permitted  by  the  Constitution  of  the 
United  States  to  make  laws  in  certain  instances  and  is 
restricted  in  others,  while  the  state,  on  the  other  hand, 
is  permitted  to  make  laws  that  are  not  prohibited  by 
the  Federal  Constitution.  The  two  documentary 
sources  of  an  American's  rights  are,  then,  the  Federal 
Constitution  and  the  constitution  of  the  state  in  which 
he  lives.  To  get  at  a  fairly  clear  understanding  of  the 
matter  of  citizenship  and  allegiance,  this  most  impor- 
tant fact  must  be  kept  in  mind  constantly. 

The  Federal  Constitution  sets  forth  a  list  of  rights 
that  the  Federal  Government  cannot  take  away  or  deny 
—  freedom  of  speech,  freedom  of  the  press,  the  right 
to  religious  freedom,  and  others.  The  Constitution 
does  not  however  say  that  a  state  cannot  deny  these 
rights  to  its  citizens.  Although  the  Federal  Govern- 
ment was  forbidden  by  the  First  Amendment  to  the 
Constitution  to  make  any  law  respecting  the  establish- 
ment of  religion  or  denying  the  free  exercise  thereof,  at 
that  very  time  in  many  of  the  states,  the  voting  fran- 
chise, and  in  some  cases,  citizenship,  were  restricted  by 
religious  qualifications.  As  far  as  the  Federal  Consti- 
tution is  concerned,  any  state  is  free  to  set  up  a  state 
church  if  the  citizens  vote  for  it. 

The  Federal   Constitution   also  enumerates    certain 


302  AMERICAN  DEMOCRACY 

rights  that  the  state  cannot  take  away  or  deny.  For 
example,  the  Fourteenth  Amendment,  after  defining 
"  citizenship  "  in  the  United  States,  says  "  no  state  shall 
deprive  any  person  of  life,  liberty,  or  property  without 
due  process  of  law,  nor  deny  to  any  person  within  its 
jurisdiction,  the  equal  protection  of  the  laws."  In  the 
Fifteenth  Amendment  the  right  of  a  state  to  deny  the 
vote  to  any  one  on  account  of  race,  color,  or  previous 
condition  of  servitude  is  expressl}'  denied. 

Congress  is  empowered  to  make  a  uniform  law  for 
naturalization,  but  the  states  have  control  of  the  laws 
concerning  suffrage.  A  foreigner  coming  to  the  United 
States  from  abroad  will  be  naturalized  under  the  same 
law  whether  he  tarry  in  New  York  or  proceed  to  North 
Dakota,  but  his  right  to  vote  will  be  governed  by  the 
law  of  the  state  in  which  he  takes  up  his  residence. 

THE    AMERICAN    CITIZEN 

"Who  is  an  American  Citizen?"  This  would  seem 
a  question  that  should  have  its  answer  in  the  Constitu- 
tion as  drafted  in  1787,  but  such  is  not  the  case.  It 
was  not  until  1868  —  nearly  one  hundred  years  after 
the  adoption  of  the  Constitution  —  that  the  term  "  citi- 
zen "  was  defined  in  our  fundamental  law.  The  Four- 
teenth Amendment,  passed  in  1868,  says:  "All  per- 
sons born  or  naturalized  in  the  United  States  and  sub- 
ject to  the  jurisdiction  thereof,  are  citizens  of  the 
United  States  and  of  the  state  wherein  they  reside." 

An  American  citizen  is  then  any  person  who  comes 
by  law  under  the  immediate  jurisdiction  of  the  laws  of 
any  one  of  the  United  States  whether  he  is  a  man,  a 
woman,  or  an  infant  —  the  last  term  denoting  any  per- 
son under  legal  age.  All  these  members  of  the  family  of 
the  American  government  are  subject  to  its  laws  and  are 


CITIZENSHIP  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES     303 

in  turn  protected  by  its  laws.  They  are  citizens 
whether  they  are  voters  or  not,  as  distinguished  from 
aliens  —  persons  born  in  a  foreign  country  who  have 
neither  been  naturalized,  nor,  if  women,  married  to  citi- 
zens of  the  United  States. 

Membership  in  the  American  family  comes  then  by 
birth,  by  naturalization,  and  by  marriage.  If  the  par- 
ents of  a  child  are  American  citizens,  the  child  is  born 
an  American  citizen ;  a  child  born  in  the  United  States 
to  alien  parents  permanently  residing  in  the  United 
States  is  an  American  citizen ;  a  child  born  to  American 
parents  residing  temporarily  in  a  foreign  country  is 
an  American  citizen. 

NATURALIZATION 

The  process  of  naturalization  is  regulated  by  a  gen- 
eral law  of  Congress  under  the  sanction  of  the  Consti- 
tution which  says :  "  Congress  shall  have  power  to  es- 
tablish an  uniform  rule  of  naturalization."  The  law 
regulating  naturalization  has  varied  from  time  to  time. 
The  present  law  excludes  all  polygamists,  and  those  who 
do  not  believe  in  "  organized  government  " ;  it  excludes 
all  who  cannot  pass  the  literacy  test  which  requires  a 
small  evidence  of  formal  education.  The  Exclusion 
Act  of  1882  prevents  Chinese  from  becoming  citizens, 
but  the  children  born  in  the  United  States  of  Chinese 
parents  are  American  citizens. 

The  law  also  specifies  that  an  alien  cannot  become 
a  citizen  of  the  United  States  until  he  has  resided  in 
the  country  for  five  years  and  has  given  a  "  notice  of 
intention  "  to  become  a  citizen  at  least  two  years  be- 
fore he  presents  himself  as  a  candidate  for  full  citizen- 
ship. At  the  time  of  declaring  his  intention,  the  aspir- 
ant for  citizenship  is  given  his  "  first  papers,"  which 


304  AMERICAN  DEMOCRACY 

practically  insure  him  all  the  rights  of  full  citizenship. 
In  most  cases  he  can  vote,  in  all  cases  his  civil  rights  are 
guaranteed  to  him.  He  may  even  take  up  a  homestead 
of  one  hundred  sixty  acres  in  a  state  where  there  is 
still  "  government  land  "  and  his  wife  may  do  likewise, 
although  usually  neither  one  can  "prove  up"  on  the 
homestead  until  the  husband  has  become  a  citizen. 

Though  the  "  first  papers  "  may  be  made  out  merely 
before  a  clerk  of  court,  the  final  papers  must  be  issued 
by  a  judge.  The  candidate  for  full  citizenship  is  re- 
quired to  take  the  Oath  of  Allegiance  to  the  United 
States,  in  which  he  "  absolutely  and  entirely  renounces 
all  allegiance  and  fidelity  to  any  foreign  prince,  poten- 
tate, state,  or  sovereignty,  and  solemnly  swears  to  sup- 
port the  Constitution  of  the  United  States  against  all 
enemies,  foreign  and  domestic,  and  bear  faith  and  alle- 
giance to  the  same." 

When  a  foreigner  becomes  an  American  citizen,  his 
wife  and  all  of  his  minor  children  automatically  become 
citizens  also.  If  an  American  woman  citizen  marries 
an  alien,  she  becomes  at  once  an  alien,  while  children 
born  of  the  marriage  in  the  United  States  are  American 
citizens.  If  the  American  wife  of  an  alien  secures  a 
divorce,  she  becomes  again  an  American  citizen.  The 
alien,  though  not  an  American  citizen,  is  guaranteed 
civil  rights  by  courtesy.  Thus  in  a  sense,  an  alien  is 
a  favored  guest  who  enjoys  all  the  benefits  the  protec- 
tion of  the  law  affords  and  assumes  no  responsibilities 
of  citizenship. 

The  fact  that  naturalization  is  regulated  by  the  Fed- 
eral Government  and  that  suffrage  is  regulated  by  the 
states  has  caused  confusing  complications  and  irregu- 
larities in  regard  to  suffrage.  While,  under  the  pro- 
visions of  the  Constitution,  five  years'  residence  is  re- 


CITIZENSHIP  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES     305 

quired  before  an  alien  can  become  a  citizen  of  the 
United  States,  the  forty-eight  states  differ  widely  in 
their  regulations  for  granting  suffrage  to  the  foreign- 
born.  Indiana,  Michigan,  Nebraska,  Oregon,  and  other 
states  grant  suffrage  after  six  months'  residence  to 
aliens  who  have  "  declared  their  intention " ;  other 
states  grant  suffrage  after  two  years'  residence  upon  a 
like  declaration;  still  others,  notably  New  York,  grant 
suffrage  only  to  citizens.  Thus  if  two  brothers  come 
to  the  United  States  on  the  same  steamer,  and  one  of 
them  goes  to  Nebraska  and  the  other  to  New  York,  the 
one  who  goes  to  Nebraska  can  vote  in  six  months  from 
the  time  that  he  lands,  while  the  one  remaining  in  New 
York  must  wait  for  five  years.  Such  inequalities  and 
irregularities  in  the  rights  of  suffrage  are  matters  that 
should  have  immediate  federal  remedy. 


Civil  Rights 

What  are  the  American  citizen's  rights?  An  Ameri- 
can citizen,  whether  he  be  possessed  of  political  rights 
or  not,  is  guaranteed  what  are  commonly  called  "  civil " 
rights.  A  mere  recital  of  these  civil  rights  takes  us 
back  to  the  days  of  King  Alfred.  The  civil  rights  of 
American  citizens  —  the  ordinary  rights  of  everyday 
life  that  we  scarcely  know  we  possess  until  they  are 
threatened  —  may  be  grouped  under  three  heads :  those 
relating  to  personal  security,  those  relating  to  personal 
liberty,  and  those  relating  to  property. 

The  rights  of  personal  security  include  police  pro- 
tection, fire  protection,  protection  of  morals,  protectior 
against  accidents  from  machinery  —  speeding  automo- 
biles, and  elevators,  and  other  common  sources  of  dan- 


306  AMERICAN  DEMOCRACY 

gcr  to  life  and  limb  arc  included  under  tliis  group  — 
and  protection  against  all  sorts  of  avoidable  accidents 
and  removable  danger.  Among  the  rights  of  personal 
security  are  also  freedom  from  the  necesi^ity  of  testify- 
ing against  one's  self,  and  freedom  from  the  quartering 
of  soldiers  in  private  houses  in  times  of  peace.  From 
the  mere  recital  of  this  list  it  can  be  readily  seen  that 
tlie  governmental  machinery  necessary  to  insure  these 
rights  to  one  hundred  million  citizens  is  of  necessity 
ponderous  and  complicated,  especially  in  a  democratic 
government  such  as  ours. 

Rights  relating  to  personal  liberty  include  freedom 
of  religious  worship,  freedom  of  speech,  of  the  press, 
and  of  assembly,  the  right  to  petition  the  government 
for  redress  of  grievances,  the  right  to  proper  treat- 
ment by  police  and  courts  in  case  of  arrest,  the  right 
to  trial  by  jury,  the  right  to  a  writ  of  habeas  corpus  — 
that  is  a  speedy  trial  on  a  definite  charge  —  the  right 
to  be  secure  in  life  and  liberty  except  by  due  process  of 
law,  the  right  to  a  reasonable  bail  or  fine,  the  right  to 
indictment  by  a  grand  jury  if  accused  of  a  serious 
offense,  and  the  right  to  equal  treatment  with  all  other 
citizens  before  the  law. 

Rights  relating  to  property  secure  to  the  individual 
possession  of  personal  property  in  money  or  land,  pro- 
vide for  a  reasonable  compensation  if  the  property  be 
taken  over  by  the  government,  enjoin  "  due  process  of 
law  "  in  the  taking  of  property  from  an  individual,  and 
forbids  the  restriction  of  the  use  of  property  in  such 
a  way  as  to  reduce  or  destroy  its  value  to  the  owner. 

The  civil  rights  enumerated  under  the  three  heads  — 
personal  security,  personal  liberty,  and  property  rights 
—  are  guaranteed  in  the  main  to  citizens  of  any  state 
of  the  United  States,  always,  of  course,  with  the  ex- 


CITIZENSHIP  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES     307 

ceptions  in  practice  that  accompany  tlic  administration 
of  justice  by  human  hands.  One  clause  of  Magna 
Charta  expressly  enjoins  "  We  will  sell  to  no  man,  we 
will  not  deny  to  any  man,  either  justice  or  right."  Yet 
no  one  will  dare  to  say  that  the  administration  of  jus- 
tice is  always  "  evenhanded  "  to-day,  though  in  the 
main  it  is  true  that  in  the  United  States  there  is  a  fairer 
measure  of  justice  in  the  exercise  and  security  of  civil 
rights  than  in  any  other  country  in  the  world. 

The  winning  of  the  civil  rights  which  the  American 
citizen  already  possesses  is  by  this  time  a  familiar  nar- 
rative; trial  by  jury  dates  back  to  Henry  II  of  Eng- 
land ;  "  habeas  corpus  "  to  Stuart  days ;  religious  free- 
dom came  only  after  centuries  of  hideous  and  unbeliev- 
able abuses.  The  protection  from  quartering  of  troops 
in  private  houses  is  scarcely  appreciated  in  this  age 
when  the  inviolable  security  of  the  American  home  is 
unquestioned. 

Besides  these  long-recognized,  hard-won  civil  rights, 
there  are  others  as  yet  not  guaranteed  that  are  pressing 
forward  to  enter  the  legal  fold.  Among  these  are  the 
rights  of  children  — •  to  a  home,  to  an  education,  to  sep- 
arate courts,  to  separate  places  of  correction,  to  a 
chance  to  develop  individual  talents ;  the  rights  of  work- 
ers —  to  a  share  in  the  excess  profits  that  are  produced 
by  their  labor,  to  a  minimum  wage,  to  form  labor  unions, 
to  better  conditions  of  labor  and  to  higher  pay,  and  to  a 
reasonable  daily  period  of  labor  and  of  rest ;  the  rights 
of  the  general  public  —  to  protection  from  industrial 
robbers  and  swindling  stock-sellers  and  against  hard- 
ships from  profiteering  and  from  strikes.  In  fact,  an 
entire  new  code  similar  to  our  political  and  our  legal 
code  is  in  process  of  development,  which,  when  it  re- 
ceives  the   recognition   that   it   demands   will   give   the 


308  AMERICAN  DEMOCRACY 

United  States  not  only  a  claim  to  be  known  as  a  politi- 
cal democracy  but  as  an  industrial  and  economic  democ- 
racy as  well. 

Political  Rights 

Political  liberty  came  into  practice  because  of  the 
desire  for  civil  liberty.  It  is  important  to  remember 
that  at  first  men  wanted  political  liberty  that  they 
might  be  secure  in  their  everyday  lives;  later  they 
sought  it  because  they  wanted  to  manage  their  own 
affairs.  Political  liberty  includes  the  right  to  vote  for 
those  who  make  and  enforce  the  laws  and  also  the  right 
to  hold  office.  In  the  United  States,  it  had  long  been 
the  general  rule  that  all  sound-minded  male  citizens  who 
were  twenty-one  years  or  over  were  allowed  to  vote ;  and 
the  same  privileges  have  been  at  last  extended  to  women. 
Idiots,  paupers,  the  insane,  bigamists,  polygamists, 
duelists,  felons,  and  Indians  not  taxed,  are  denied  the 
right  of  suflPrage.  In  some  states,  sailors  and  soldiers 
are  not  allowed  to  vote  because  they  are  representa- 
tives, not  of  a  state,  but  of  the  federal  government.  All 
states  require  a  residence  qualification  varying  from  six 
months  to  two  years ;  some  states  allow  only  citizens  to 
vote;  a  few  states  restrict  the  suffrage  to  tax-payers; 
about  one-third  of  the  states  have  some  kind  of  edu- 
cational test.  In  one  way  or  another,  almost  all  of  the 
states  of  the  South,  by  property  qualifications,  by  edu- 
cational tests,  or  by  other  restrictions,  exclude  negroes 
from  the  polls. 

One  must  not,  because  of  this  formal  enumeration, 
draw  the  conclusion  that  the  government  is  a  machine 
mechanically  grinding  out  rights  and  privileges  while 
the  hungry  citizens  look  up  to  be  fed  with  them.  Gov- 
ernment in  the  United  States  is  in  the  long  run  simply 


CITIZENSHIP  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES     309 

a  matter  of  public  sentiment.  The  officers  who  make 
laws  will  eventually  give  the  people  who  elect  them  what 
they  want  or  thej  will  go  down  to  certain  defeat  when 
they  present  themselves  for  reelection.  At  the  same 
time  it  is  usually  true  in  a  republic  like  ours  that  no 
body  of  men  who  make  and  carry  out  the  laws  will  give 


Medal  Awarded  to  Henry  Clay 

the  citizens  a  better  government  than  is  actually  de- 
manded. The  people  will  get  as  good  a  government  as 
the  majority  of  them  want. 

DUTIES    OF    AN    AMERICAN    CITIZEN 

All  this  brings  us  directly  to  our  next  question, 
"What  are  the  duties  of  an  American  Citizen?" 
"  How  can  one  single  citizen  have  any  influence  on  the 
immense  and  complicated  system  of  government  of  the 
United  States?  "  Henry  Clay  was  but  one  single  per- 
son; Lincoln  was  but  one  individual;  Susan  B.  Anthony 


310  x\MERICAN  DEMOCRACY 

was  a  lone  woman;  Booker  T.  Washington  a  nameless 
black  man,  yet  all  of  these,  single  citizens  as  thej  were, 
have  had  a  real  influence  on  our  immense  and  com- 
plicated system  of  government.  Every  individual, 
whether  he  holds  office  or  not,  whose  judgment  we  value 
because  he  has  demonstrated  that  his  opinions  are  fair- 
minded  and  his  conclusions  and  actions  based  on  what 
he  considers  the  common  good,  is  an  important  factor 
in  the  upbuilding  of  the  nation. 

Considered  seriously  and  honestly,  the  duty  involved 
in  being  an  American  is  no  sinecure.  The  American 
citizen  cannot  sit  back  comfortably  under  the  paternal 
care  of  a  despot  or  a  despotic  ohgarchy  and  let  the 
world  go  hang  so  long  as  he  is  safe  and  warm ;  the 
liberties  that  he  enjoys  are  not  given  by  a  king  to  his 
subjects ;  they  come  from  the  people  themselves  be- 
cause in  our  country  the  people  are  the  source  of 
authority.  The  general  level  of  the  citizens  of  a  coun- 
try where  the  people  are  the  sovereign  power  is  seen 
in  the  laws  which  the  representatives  make  and  enforce. 
So  it  comes  that  the  individuals  in  a  democratic  gov- 
ernment are  all-important  because  the  source  of  power 
lies  in  them.  As  water  cannot  rise  above  its  own  level, 
so  the  moral  life  of  the  state  cannot  rise  above  its  own 
source. 

A  good  citizen  and  a  good  man  come  very  near  to 
being  the  same  thing  and  the  practice  of  fair  dealing 
comes  very  near  to  making  a  good  man.  The  man 
who  is  able  to  give  a  good  account  of  his  stewardship 
to  his  state  has  become  well-practiced  in  being  a  good 
man,  for  the  good  citizen  always  remembers  that  while 
freedom  may  and  should  be  used  to  his  own  profit  and 
enjoyment,  it  is  subject  to  the  equal  rights  of  other 
men. 


CITIZENSHIP  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES      311 


A    VOTERS    TRAINING 

The  virtue  of  good  citizenship  is  bred  in  the  home, 
in  the  school,  in  the  community,  where  the  individual 
readily  learns  that  the  acts  of  one  person  may  prove 
harmful  to  others ;  that  selfishness,  as  the  ruling  and 
only  source  of  action,  is  bad  for  everybody  concerned. 
The  good  citizen  must  go  farther  than  that,  for  he  must 
learn  the  art  of  quietly  sitting  down  by  himself  to  con- 
template what  he  really  believes  and  desires  as  an 
American  citizen.  In  other  words,  he  must  learn  to 
think  out  for  himself  the  things  he  believes  to  be  right 
and  fair  to  others  as  to  himself.  He  may  well,  also, 
take  counsel  with  his  fellow  men.  The  time  has  passed 
when  the  formation  of  clubs  to  influence  public  opinion 
was  considered  a  meddlesome  interference  on  the  part  of 
private  persons.  Open  discussion  has  become  a  neces- 
sity in  American  life,  where  useful  political  action  must 
be  guided  by  thought.  In  the  exchange  of  ideas 
through  friendly  or  heated  informal  debate  issues  be- 
come familiar  and  men  are  made  to  think.  The  citizen 
who  is  entitled  to  express  his  stand  in  public  affairs  by 
his  vote  will  not  neglect  the  duty  of  going  to  the  polls, 
for  at  the  polls  he  performs  his  chief  act  of  sovereignty. 
In  the  United  States  a  stage  has  been  reached  where  the 
voter  is  conscious  that  he  can  lay  shaping  hands  on  the 
processes  of  politics,  and  that,  unless  he  is  as  willing  to 
vote  in  time  of  peace  as  he  is  willing  to  fight  in  time  of 
war,  he  virtually  resigns  his  title  to  be  considered  one  of 
the  sovereign  people.  Right  voting  needs  not  a  back- 
ground of  the  learning  of  the  schools ;  a  decent  sense  of 
fair  play  directed  by  an  honest  mind  is  all  the  training 
required  for  the  man  before  whom  the  issue  is  plain. 

If  the  United  States  is  to  progress  toward  a  greater 


312  AMERICAN  DEMOCRACY 

democracy,  voters  must  train  themselves  to  be  intelli- 
gent as  to  issues  and  interested  in  measures,  rather  than 
merely  prejudiced  in  favor  of  the  men  standing  for 
election.  The  people  must  respect  their  liberties  if 
they  hope  to  preserve  them,  for  eternal  vigilance  is  in- 
deed the  price  of  safety.  A  democracy  without  the  re- 
straints imposed  by  an  intelligent  citizenry,  may  become 
the  worst  kind  of  a  tyranny. 

It  must  not  be  forgotten  that  American  Citizenship 
is  not  a  thing  of  the  body ;  it  is  a  thing  of  spirit,  of  il- 
lumination, of  coming  out  into  the  sun.  With  gener- 
ous and  imaginative  peoples,  the  process  of  becoming 
an  American  is  completed  almost  in  a  day.  For,  from 
the  beginning,  America  has  said  to  all  comers,  "  Come, 
to  this  land;  you  need  have  no  fear.  You  arc  wel- 
come; take  your  place  at  the  family  board.  If  you 
choose,  remain  a  guest;  if  you  wish  to  have  a  hand  in 
regulating  the  affairs  of  the  family,  you  may  become  a 
member  of  this  household.  In  time  you  may  even  sit 
at  the  national  council  table,  at  which  but  one  place  is 
denied  you,  the  place  at  the  head." 

The  invitation  has  been  accepted,  eagerly,  hopefully, 
passionately.  They  have  come  in  motley  throngs  from 
all  the  nations  with  heads  uplifted,  eagerly  looking  to- 
ward the  land  of  hope.  And  America  took  them  all  in 
kindly,  openly,  tolerantly,  and,  it  must  be  added,  care- 
lessly. In  a  few  years  they  became  Americans,  and  in 
a  single  generation  their  children  were  filling  positions 
in  every  station. 

The  American  citizen,  be  he  but  one  generation  from 
the  soil  of  Europe,  or  a  proud  son  of  the  American  Rev- 
olution, is  permitted  to  become  what  he  dares  and  wills; 
he  follows  the  gleam  that  leads  him ;  it  may  be  the  light 
of  stars ;  it  may  be  the  electric  glare  of  fame  or  ambi- 


CITIZENSHIP  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES      313 

tion ;  it  may  be  the  yellow  flame  of  a  tallow  dip  that 
leads  to  the  miser's  treasure-house.  But,  being  an 
American,  whatever  the  impelling  motive,  the  way  is 
open  to  his  ultimate  desire. 

THE    REAL    AMERICAN 

This  homogeneous  mixture  of  races  and  peoples  goes 
to  make  up  the  United  States  of  America,  a  new,  dis- 
tinctively-marked member  of  the  family  of  nations. 
In  no  other  country  in  the  world  has  such  an  assimila- 
tion and  such  a  development  taken  place.  The  Ameri- 
can keeps  the  characteristics  that  marked  the  colonist 
—  the  open-minded  intelligence,  the  freedom  of  will,  the 
generosity  of  hand,  the  practical  common-sense,  the 
eagerness  and  willingness  to  participate  in  affairs  of 
government,  the  ideal  of  justice  and  fair  play,  the  dy- 
namic force  which  delights  in  accomplishment. 

These  are  signs  that  mark  the  real  American,  for  it 
must  be  remembered  that  not  all  who  dwell  in  the 
United  States  may  be  truly  called  Americans.  There 
are  persons  living  in  America,  some  of  them  foreigners 
by  birth,  some  whose  forefathers  date  back  to  the  May- 
floweVy  who  are  not  Americans.  They  are  spiritual 
alienjs,  who  consider  America  a  place  for  the  exploita- 
tion of  their  own  pett^^  or  stupendous  schemes  of  per- 
sonal selfishness.  They  take  all  America  will  give  them 
or  will  allow  them  to  take  and  cram  it  into  their  own 
pockets,  or  they  play  upon  the  helpless  ignorance  and 
inherited  prejudices  of  well-meaning  Americans,  and,  by 
insidious  and  crooked  means,  grasp  and  hold  political 
power  by  which  they  corrupt  the  laws  and  gain  eco- 
nomic dominion  over  others. 

For  the  United  States  of  America  has  not  yet  reached 
the  summit  of  perfection  in  political  life,  in  social  life, 


314  AMERICAN  DEMOCRACY 

or  in  economic  life.  No  American  citizen  who  uses  his 
talent  or  his  ballot  for  his  own  excessive  aggrandize- 
ment can  be  considered  a  true  American ;  no  law  can 
make  him  one.  He  is  a  most  subtle  foe  of  the  country 
to  which  he  owes  allegiance. 

THE    AMERICAN    OF    TQ-DAY    AND    TQ-MORRGW 

The  Great  War  is  over  but  the  test  of  American  citi- 
zenry has  only  just  begun.  In  action,  on  the  field  of 
battle,  on  the  sea,  in  the  air,  there  is  glory  and  honor 
and  fame.  The  plain,  steady,  everyday  duty  of  being 
an  American  has  little  of  alluring  beauty  or  high  ro- 
mance. Yet  it  means  life  for  an  ideal.  America  must 
have  ready  at  a  moment's  notice  a  great,  compact,  well- 
organized,  fluent-minded  army  of  citizens.  Day  and 
night,  year  in,  year  out,  the  true  American  must  wear 
the  uniform  of  his  citizenship  as  the  soldier  in  Uncle 
Sam's  army  wears  the  khaki  while  he  is  enrolled  in  the 
lists  of  fighting  men.  He  can  never  lay  it  aside,  for 
in  a  democracy,  war  against  inherent  evils  never  ends. 
He  must  wear  the  insignia  of  his  allegiance  and  his 
servitude  till  he  dies. 

As  a  soldier  is  proud  to  keep  himself  in  exact  form, 
his  uniform  neat,  his  face  smooth  and  clean,  his  hands 
immaculate,  his  shoes  shining,  his  cap  at  the  precise 
angle  required,  his  gun  polished  and  ready  for  use,  so 
must  the  soldier  of  the  great  army  of  citizenship  step 
forward  with  mind  open,  with  high  courage,  with  kind 
heart,  with  clear  conscience,  with  wide  vision,  with  look 
ahead.  He  must  keep  himself  constantly  in  the  train- 
ing that  will  fit  him  for  performing  the  functions  of 
citizenship. 

He  must  learn  to  execute  the  duties  placed  upon  him 


CITIZENSHIP  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES     315 

by  his  allegiance  to  his  country  so  efficiently  and 
promptly  that  there  will  be  time  to  spare  for  pursuing 
his  own  particular  business  and  avocation,  never  for- 
getting that  the  American  ideal  includes  a  dual  respon- 
sibility, of  freedom  for  the  individual  to  please  himself 
and  a  scrupulous  attention  to  a  consideration  of  the 
common  good  of  all  men  —  brothers  and  equals  before 
God. 

It  is  not  an  easy  nor  negligible  thing  to  be  a  good 
American,  but  he  who  wills  to  stand  in  the  ranks  of  true 
American  citizenship  fights  on  the  winning  side.  The 
good  American  will  take  the  high  way  and  follow  his 
ideal  by  being  a  worthy  citizen  of  the  United  States, 
and  just  as  truly  a  useful  citizen  of  the  world  at  large. 


CHAPTER  XVI 
AMERICAN  IDEALS 

No  nation  can  live  without  vision,  and  no  vision  will  exalt  a 
nation  except  the  vision  of  real  liberty  and  real  justice  and  purity 
of  conduct.  Woodrow   Wilson. 

The  avowed  purpose  of  the  United  States  in  entering 
the  Great  War  was  "  to  make  the  world  safe  for  de- 
mocracy." The  war  was  won  on  that  issue,  which 
seemed  clear  to  every  one  after  the  United  States  went 
in.  The  Allies  acclaimed  the  ideals  thus  set  up  and  in 
no  uncertain  words  agreed  with  these  aims  of  the 
United  States  when  she  threw  her  millions  of  young 
men  and  her  billions  of  wealth  against  the  Central 
Powers.  Indeed,  myriads  of  printed  statements  of 
those  ideals  fluttered  down  from  air-planes  upon  the 
armies  of  the  Germans  and  Austrians  to  make  it  evi- 
dent to  the  rank  and  file  that  the  Americans  and  Allies 
were  fighting  for  the  cause  of  the  common  man,  not 
only  of  their  own  countries,  but  of  all  countries. 

But  when  the  war  was  over,  it  began  to  appear  that 
the  meaning  of  the  inspiring  battle-cry  that  had 
weakened  the  morale  of  the  enemy  and  carried  the 
Allies  to  victory  was  not,  after  all,  so  obvious  and  so 
simple  as  men  had  thought  it  to  be.  What  had  been 
perfectly  plain  to  all  sensible  persons  in  the  ardor  of 
the  fight  for  a  great  cause,  seemed  to  admit  of  unwar- 
rantable exceptions   and  undreamed-of  interpretations 

after  the  military  victory  had  been  won. 

316 


AMERICAN  IDEALS  317 

As  a  consequence,  since  the  close  of  the  war,  people 
have  been  living  in  a  state  of  mental  confusion  as  to 
exactly  what  is  meant  by  "  democracy."  In  the 
United  States,  we  stoutly  maintain  that  we  must  cling 
to  "  American  ideals,"  if  we  wish  to  keep  our  great 
nation  safe  from  the  tyranny  of  wealth  on  the  one  hand 
and  the  inroads  of  revolution  on  the  other.  But  what 
is  the  meaning  of  these  magic  words?     Before  we  can 


President  Wilsox  and  His  Cabinet,  1913 

apply  it  in  any  constructive  way  we  must  undertake  to 
define  "  democracy  "  or  "  the  American  ideal  of  govern- 
ment "  in  terms  that  the  plain  people  can  understand 
and  accept. 

DEMOCRACY    IN    GREECE    AND    ROME 

We  may  begin  at  once  by  stating  that  the  American 
ideal  of  government  is  government  by  the  people;  in 
other   words,   it   is   the   democratic   ideal.     Americans 


318  AMERICAN  DEMOCRACY 

have  become  so  used  to  the  statement  that  the  people 
are  the  source  of  government  that  they  scarcely  realize 
how  unusual  and  daring  a  thing  it  was  in  Jefferson's 
time  to  set  up  a  government  on  that  startling  princi- 
ple; in  fact,  few  Americans  know  that  ours  was  the 
first  country  that,  from  its  very  beginning,  openly  pro- 
claimed the  people  as  the  source  of  government.  Yet 
even  in  1776  the  idea  of  the  people  as  the  source  of 
government  was  not  a  new  one.  Such  philosophy  of 
government  had  existed  since  the  days  of  the  "  demo- 
cratic "  Greek  city  states,  five  hundred  years  before 
the  Christian  era.  Plato  stated  in  his  "  Republic," 
that  "  a  sense  of  the  general  good  supports  the  state, 
self-seeking  disintegrates  it."  "  Hence,"  he  went  on, 
"  it  is  useful  to  point  out  the  general  good  to  the  in- 
lividual."  Aristotle,  the  Greek  philosopher,  said  that 
"  political  government  is  a  government  of  free  men 
and  equals  working  together  for  the  common  happiness 
of  life  under  a  government  which  is  administered  for 
the  benefit  of  all."  But  the  democracy  of  Greece  was 
not  a  democracy  at  all  in  the  American  sense,  for  in 
Greece,  "  demos,"  the  people,  meant  but  a  small  privi- 
leged class,  which  lived  on  the  labors  of  the  great  mass 
of  the  population,  made  up  of  the  slaves.  In  classical 
Athens,  the  most  enliglitcned  city  of  its  time,  there  were 
more  than  four  hundred  thousand  slaves  and  not  more 
than  twenty-one  thousand  freemen. 

In  the  days  of  the  Roman  Republic,  all  Romans, 
plebeians  as  well  as  patricians,  were  citizens.  The  com- 
mon people  had  their  "  tribunes  "  to  speak  for  them 
and  popular  consent  was  necessary  to  make  an  election 
valid.  Rome  did  not  remain  a  city-state,  but  even  when 
all  Italy  was  united  under  Rome's  dominion,  popular 
government  was   carried  on  by  having  all  the  people 


AMERICAN  IDEALS  319 

come  together  in  one  place  to  express  the  public  will. 
Later,  when  Rome  became  the  possessor  of  the  world, 
the  moneyed  aristocracy  fattened  on  the  loot  of  far- 
away provinces,  and  her  system  of  popular  government 
gave  way  to  the  rule  of  the  Roman  emperors,  who  caused 
their  statues  to  be  worshipped  as  gods.  Because  the 
Romans  did  not  discover  how  to  govern  by  representa- 
tion, Rome  could  not  be  a  world  republic  but  became 
the  Roman  Empire. 

THEORY    OF    SOURCE    OF    GOVERNMENT 

The  roots  of  the  ideals  that  underlie  the  American 
government,  are  not  to  be  found  in  Greece,  or  Rome. 
The  democratic  ideal  had  its  beginnings  in  the  religious 
doctrine  that  all  men  are  equaLin_the  sight  of  God. 
That  ideal  coupled  with  the  idea  that  man  is  responsible 
to  God  for  all  his__aiitions  is  the_±«je-«ore  of  the  demo- 
cratic 

iHring  the  Middle  Ages,  the  Church  carried  out  this 
ancient  doctrine  into  a  very  real  democracy.  Her  of- 
fices were  open  to  all  who  showed  intellectual  promise  — 
peasant  and  son  of  nobleman  alike  became  candidates 
for  the  priesthood.  In  their  effort  to  work  out  a 
complete  system  of  philosophy,  the  great  schoolmen  of 
the  period  did  not  neglect  the  philosophy  of  government. 
St.  Augustine  (353-430)  defined  a  political  society  as 
essentially  a  multitude  united  hy  consent  and  commu<- 
nity  of  interest.  St.  Thomas  Acquinas  (1224-1274), 
the  greatest  theologian  of  the  Middle  Ages,  insisted 
that  civil  power  owed  its  actual  existence  to  human 
right  and  that  the  essential  note  of_&m^^rpignty^  tjip 
right  to  make  laws^  was  in  the  hands  of  thepeophu..^ 
He  also  defended  prevailing  customs  as  law.  He  held 
that  for  all  good  governments,  the  people  have  a  share 


S20  AMERICAN  DEMOCRACY 

in  the  sovereignty  and  that  the  best  form  of  govern- 
ment is  one  in  which  the  people  elect  their  rulers  amoncr 
themselves,  FollowingThe~3octrInes^f  the  Church,  the 
early  Christian  kings  claimed  no  divine  right  to  their 
kingly  powers ;  they  subscribed  themselves  Kings  by  the 
Grace  of  God  and  neither  they  nor  their  people  con- 
sidered the  King  ruler  by  divine  appointment. 

In  the  long  and  painful  struggle  for  political  freedom 
in  England,  the  philosophy  of  the  Church  was  on  the 
side  of  sovereignty  of  the  people.  The  teaching  of  the 
schoolmen  was  of  immense  value,  as  it  set  forth  the 
lawful  relation  between  the  King  and  people,  and,  by 
its  logic,  made  short  work  of  the  royal  claims  to  divine 
power.  The  begging  friars,  always  the  supporters  of 
freedom,  taught  the  people  something  of  the  dignity 
of  labor  and  the  frailty  of  kings,  who  were  after  all 
but  men. 

But  although  it  is  true  that  there  existed  a  written 
theory  of  government,  the  struggle  toward  democracy 
was  scarcely  a  conscious  one.  The  barons  of  England 
strove  with  King  John,  not  for  a  principle,  but  to  gain 
their  own  advantage.  The  mass  of  the  people  were 
content  with  their  civil  rights,  which  presently  came  to 
be  "  the  rights  of  Englishmen."  After  the  Reforma- 
tion, the  assumption  by  the  Kings  of  headship  of  the 
Church  having  been  accepted,  it  was  but  a  step  to  set 
up  the  further  claim  of  divine  right  to  kingship. 

In  spite  of  the  divine  right  practice  of  the  Tudor 
monarchs,  English  philosophical  writers  continued  to 
set  forth  the  theory  of  government  as  founded  on  the 
consent  of  the  governed.  One  of  these,  Richard 
Hooker  ( 1 553-1 60()) ,  stated  ^that  all  public  govern- 
ment of  whatever  kind  arises  from  "  deliberate  advice, 
consultation,  and  composition  "  and  that  "  the  sover- 


AMERICAN  IDEALS  321 

eignty  rests  ultimately  with  the  people  who  have  agreed 
upon  the  law  of  the  '  common  wealth  '  as  the  basis  of 
union."  Another  writer,  Thomas  Hobbes  (1588- 
1679)  restated  Hooker's  view;  and  still  later  John 
Loeke  (1632-1703)  made  sovereignty  consist  of  the 
rights  which  every  man  has  over  his  own  actions,  rights 
which  he  gives  over  to  tlie  government  as  they  are 
needed  for  the  common  welfare. 

AMERICAN    IDEAL    OF    GOVERNMENT 

Thus  we  see  that  up  to  the  time  of  the  American 
Revolution,  there  w^ere  scattered  writings  dealing  with 
the  subject  although  there  was  no  accepted,  well-de- 
fined theory  of  government  by  the  consent  of  the  gov- 
erned. Since  the  colonial  lawyers  were  well-read  men, 
we  may  be  certain  that  when  they  were  seeking  a  sure 
ground  on  which  to  base  the  colonists'  claim  of  the  right 
to  rule  themselves,  they  searched  diligently  in  Hooker, 
in  Hobbes,  and  in  Locke,  as  well  as  in  Rousseau,  their 
brilliant  French  contemporary,  who,  in  *'  The  Social 
Contract,"  had  set  forth  a  forceful  case  for  the  rule  of 
the  people  as  a  basis  of  just  government. 

In  1776  George  Mason  wrote  into  the  State  Consti- 
tution of  Virginia  a  Bill  of  Rights  —  the  first  document 
of  its  kind  in  history.  It  stated  that  all  men  are  equally 
free  and  have  certain  inherent  rights;  that  all  power 
is  vested  in  the  people ;  that  government  ought  to  be  in- 
stituted for  the  common  good;  and  that  if  it  is  found 
to  be  inadequate,  the  people  have  a  right  to  reform, 
alter,  or  abolish  it;  and  finally  that  no  free  government 
can  he  preserved  except  hy  frequently  going  hack  to 
fundamental  principles.  When,  a  few  weeks  later,  these 
ideas  were  put  into  the  Declaration  of  Independence, 
they  were  heard  "  round  the  world,"  and  ar€  still  heard, 


32'. 


AMERICAN  DEMOCRACY 


because  they  find  an  echo  in  the  hearts  of  men  every- 
where. 

However  imperfect  has  been  the  expression  of  the 
will  of  the  majority,  there  can  be  no  gainsaying  the  fact 
that  the  American  ideal  has  always  been  the  democratic 

ideal,  the  source  of 
government  having 
been  from  the  first 
clearly  understood  as 
being  from  the  peo- 
ple. The  Declara- 
tion of  Independence 
proclaimed  to  the 
iworld  that  "  govern- 
ments are  instituted 
among  men,  deriving 
their  just  powers 
from  the  consent  of 
the  governed.^*  The 
Constitution  of  the 
United  States  an- 
nounces itself  as  an 
instrument  of  govern- 
ment in  these  words: 
^^We,  the  people  of 
the  United  States, 
...  in  order  to  pro- 
mote the  general  wel- 
fare ...  do  ordain 
and  establish  "  the  form  of  government  under  which  we 
live. 

According  to  Chief  Justice  Marshall,  "  The  Gov- 
ernment proceeds  directly  from  the  people;  it  is  or- 
dained and  established  in  the  name  of  the  people;  its 


John  Marshall 

Chief  Justice  of  the  United  States 
for  thirty-five  years  (1800-1835). 
He  established  the  power  of  the  Su- 
preme Court  over  the  legislative 
branch  of  our  Government. 

"  He  found  the  constitution  paper, 
and  made  it  power;  he  found  it  a 
skeleton,  and  clothed  it  with  flesh  and 
blood." 


AMERICAN   IDEALS  323 

powers  are  granted  by  them  and  are  exercised  directly 
on  them  and  for  their  benefit;  it  is  a  government  of 
all ;  its  powers  are  delegated  by  all ;  it  represents  and 
acts  for  all."  The  final  and  complete  statement  of  the 
ideal  of  American  democracy  was  given  by  Abraham 
Lincoln  in  his  "  government  of  the  people,  for  the 
people,  and  by  the  people  "  which  is  in  truth  the  heart 
of  the  American  ideal  of  government. 

But  Lincoln  did  not  believe  that  a  mere  majority 
was  the  true  source  of  sovereignty.  He  recognized  the 
fact  than  an  unrestrained  absolute  majority  might  be- 
come a  despotic  form  of  absolutism  and  sweep  all  indi- 
vidual rights  before  it.  He  gave  a  true  definition  of 
the  sovereignty  of  the  people  when  he  said :  *^A  major- 
ity held  in  restraint  by  constitutional  checks  and  limita- 
tions, and  easily  changing  with  deliberate  changes  of 
popular  opinion,  is  the  only  true  sovereign  of  the 
people." 

THE    AMERICAN    IDEAL 

But  when  we  have  said  all  this,  we  have  only  defined 
American  ideals  in  general  terms ;  to  get  at  the  real 
heart  of  the  matter  we  must  explain  those  general  terms 
in  meanings  that  will  apply  to  the  individual  American, 
who  is  an  integral  part  of  the  American  people.  As  ap- 
plied to  the  individual,  it  will  be  found  that,  in  the 
United  States,  democratic  government  takes  on  two 
main  aspects  —  freedom  of  the  individual,  and  consid- 
eration for  the  "  general  zvelfare,^^  that  ancient  and 
honorable  "  common  good "  that  Plato  wrote  about 
more  than  two  thousand  years  ago. 

Individual  Freedom  and  the  Common  Good 
The  American  ideal  may  be  stated  in  some  such  words 
as  these:  Man  has  been  given  intelligence  and  responsi- 


324  AMERICAN  DExMOCRACY 

bility  in  order  that  he  may  play  a  part  in  some  vast 
design  of  the  Creator  of  the  Universe.  In  the  world  in 
which  he  lives  are  countless  other  beings  like  himself,  all 
equal  to  him  in  the  sight  of  God.  According  to  the 
American  ideal,  the  individual  is  free  to  strike  out  on 
any  path  he  may  choose,  provided  always  that  his 
course  does  not  interfere  with  like  freedom  of  others. 
In  the  past  this  idea  of  individual  freedom  has  been 
the  aspect  of  the  American  ideal  that  has  most  often 
caught  the  imagination,  while  the  common  good  has 
been  to  a  large  degree  neglected.  When  the  two  aspects 
of  the  American  ideal  are  equally  and  thus  properly 
regarded,  the  American  ideal  is  the  embodiment  of  fair 
play  for  each  person  who  goes  to  help  make  up  the  body 
politic.  It  involves  what  is  variously  termed  a  "  square 
deal,"  "  sportsmanship,"  '"^  common  decency,"  "  social 
justice,"  or  whatever  else  one  may  call  the  fundamental 
rule  of  conduct  which  bids  us  to  do  as  we  would  be  done 

by. 

THE    AMERICAN    THEORY    OF    STATE 

In  order  that  the  American  ideal  of  personal  initia- 
tive and  equal  opportunity  for  all  may  be  lived  out  in 
security,  the  government  of  the  United  States  has  been 
set  up,  for,  according  to  the  American  ideal  of  democ- 
racy, the  state  exists  solely  as  an  instrument  to  show  the 
will  of  the  people.  The  kernel  of  the  American  ideal 
of  life  and  government  is,  therefore,  a  fair  chance  for 
the  individual,  a  mutual  concern  for  the  common  good, 
and  a  machinery  of  government  existing  for  the  single 
purpose  of  securing  these  ends.  From  this  as  a  center 
of  belief  have  sprung  all  true  American  ideals. 


AMERICAN  IDEALS  325 

OUR    COMMON    IDEALS 

When  we  speak  of  American  ideals,  we  mean  the 
ideals  of  the  great  majority  of  the  citizens  of  the  United 
States,  for,  though  representatives  in  the  government 
are  selected  by  means  of  political  parties  and  may  as 
individuals  hold  opinions  at  great  variance  with  the 
American  ideal,  the  average  of  opinion,  made  up  from 
the  beliefs  of  all  classes  and  conditions  of  society,  is  apt 
to  approach  very  close  to  justice,  for  the  simple  reason 
that,  in  the  main,  the  principles  of  right-living  have 
always  been  common  to  the  great  mass  of  the  people. 

These  common  ideals  of  right  thinking  are  familiar 
enough:  they  are  the  belief  in  God;  in  the  dignity  of 
man;  in  the  sacredness  of  life;  in  the  inviolability  of 
marriage;  in  the  sanctity  of  the  home;  in  the  obliga- 
tion of  promises;  in  the  compelling  power  of  duty;  in 
kindliness  to  neighbors ;  and  in  the  accountability  of 
the  individual  to  his  own  conscience  alone.  These  be- 
liefs, held  by  good  men  from  the  earliest  ages,  were 
embodied  in  the  government  in  the  United  States  of 
America,  the  first  government  in  the  world  to  be  set  up 
on  the  definite  foundation  of  the  brotherhood  of  man. 

While  the  government  of  the  United  States  has  been 
scrupulously  careful  to  leave  its  citizens  free  in  mat- 
ters of  religion,  the  Constitution  specifically  prohibiting 
the  establishment  of  a  state  church,  the  people  of  the 
United  States  have  always  been  believers  in  the  Provi- 
dence of  God.  The  signers  of  the  Declaration  of  In- 
dependence appealed  -"  to  the  Supreme  Judge  of  the 
World  for  the  rectitude  of  our  intentions  " ;  Lincoln 
in  the  Emancipation  Proclamation  invoked  "  the  gra- 
cious favor  of  Almighty  God  "  upon  the  step  he  was 


326  AMERICAN  DEMOCRACY 

taking;  President  Wilson  closed  his  war  message  to 
Congress  by  calling  on  God  to  sustain  our  arms.  The 
coin  of  the  United  States  bears  the  motto,  "  In  God 
We  Trust  " ;  our  National  legislature  is  opened  with 
prayer ;  our  statute  book  bears  witness  that  the  "  Thou 
shalt  not  "  of  the  tables  of  Moses  is  still  the  basis  of 
our  common  law. 

Moreover,  the  practice  of  religious  observance  has 
been  a  marked  characteristic  of  American  life.  It  has 
marched  step  by  step  with  the  practice  of  government 
by  the  people.  The  dusty  traveler,  rattling  along 
over  the  Minnesota  and  Dakota  prairies,  is  struck  by 
certain  outstanding  features  of  the  many  small  towns 
he  passes  through.  Two  dominating  structures  strike 
his  eye,  the  church  and  the  town  hall  or  court  house. 
These  two,  the  church  and  the  state,  divorced  by  mutual 
consent,  dwell  here  in  harmony.  With  the  ever  pres- 
ent school-house,  the  town  hall  and  the  church  are  the 
most  insistent  and  obvious  features  of  American  com- 
munity life. 


7 


OUR    IDEALS    IN    PRACTICE 


From  these  springs  come  the  various  practices  and 
policies  that  show  themselves  in  the  conduct  of  our 
government  and  of  our  common  life  —  the  ideal  of 
individual  freedom  to  worship,  to  speak,  to  assemble, 
to  petition  for  redress  of  grievances,  to  be  secure  in 
the  home,  to  own  property,  to  trial  by  jury,  to  be 
safe  from  unjust  arrest;  the  ideal  of  fair  play  under- 
lying our  foreign  policy  and  our  practice  of  arbitra- 
tion;  our  belief  in  the  inviolability  of  treaties  and  our 
ideal  of  neighborliness. 

In  living  out  these  ideals  the  United  States  has  not 
relied  on  good  will  alone ;  for  from  the  very  first  it  has 


AMERICAN  IDEALS  327 

taken  a  position  of  sclf-rcspccting  independence  and 
magnificent  courage  that  has  enabled  it,  undaunted,  to 
face  unknown  dangers  and  to  pass  through  each  crisis 
with  no  loss  of  honor  and  respect.  Along  with  this  in- 
dependence has  gone  that  most  remarkable  capacity  for 
finding  new  ways  to  put  things  through. 

That  the  United  States  has  lived  by  ideals  is  evi- 
denced on  all  hands.  She  has  protected  the  rights  of 
the  individual  as  far  as  statutes  can  protect  such  rights. 
Civil  rights  are  secured  to  all  citizens  under  the  law. 
If  these  sacred  rights  have  ever  been  violated,  it  has 
been  because  of  the  imperfections  of  the  human  beings 
appointed  to  carry  out  the  laws.  If  new  individual 
rights  have  been  developed  that  are  as  yet  unprotected, 
it  is  because  adjustments  of  law  have  not  kept  pace 
with  the  rapid  changes  that  have  taken  place  in  our 
social  order. 

We  have  striven  to  carry  out  our  ideals  in  a  spiritl 
of  friendliness.  The  American  nation  has  never  hesi-; 
tated  to  include  the  whole  world  when  answering  the 
question,  "  Who,  then,  is  thy  neighbor."  For  as  Ameri- 
cans, above  all  other  things,  believe  that  every  man  is 
entitled  to  direct  his  own  life,  so  do  they  believe  that 
every  nation  must  have  a  like  privilege,  provided  it 
does  not  interfere  with  other  peoples  or  threaten  the 
peace  of  the  world. 

Because  the  builders  of  the  American  ideal  were 
reasonable  and  logical,  the  rule  of  fair  play  has  been 
carried  out,  with  few  exceptions,  in  our  conduct  toward 
foreign  nations.  We  have  been  friendly  neighbors,  un- 
willing to  mix  in  family  quarrels  but  ready  and  anxious 
to  help,  once  quiet  was  restored  in  national  households. 
No  matter  how  frequent  the  revolutions  in  the  coun- 
tries to  the  south  of  us,  we  have  forborne  to  interfere. 


328  AMERICAN  DEMOCRACY 

even  though  often  sorely  tried;  and  when  after  long 
provocation,  we  entered  the  Great  War,  we  announced 
to  the  world  that  we  sought  no  material  advantages  of 
any  kind  and  in  the  settlement  after  the  great  struggle 
was  over  our  nation  sought  no  plunder. 

In  carrying  out  the  policy  of  the  Monroe  Doctrine, 
the  United  States  has  shown  an  independence  and  sure- 
ness  of  ground  that  has  enabled  her,  more  than 
once,  to  gain  the  desired  ends  without  striking  a  blow. 
Twice  by  a  determined  gesture  she  protected  Venezuela. 
She  went  to  war  for  Cuba,  and  then  kept  faith  with  her 
own  ideal  by  giving  that  rich  and  tempting  island  back 
to  its  own  people,  after  the  Spanish-American  War. 

Our  sincere  desire  to  dwell  in  neighborly  friendliness 
with  the  rest  of  the  world  is  eloquently  and  finally 
proved  by  the  unmarked,  unguarded,  far-flung  line 
stretching  from  the  Atlantic  to  the  Pacific,  that  indi- 
cates the  boundary  between  the  Dominion  of  Canada 
and  the  United  States  of  America.  Nowhere  in  the  his- 
tory of  the  world  is  there  nobler  testimony  of  the  need- 
lessness  of  a  standing  army  than  is  that  silent  border 
where  no  bristling  fortress  lifts  its  head,  and  where  no 
watchful  army  is  stationed. 

The  sincerity  of  our  belief  in  peaceful  arbitration 
has  been  made  clear  in  numberless  instances  where  we 
have  willingly  accepted  judgments  even  when  they  have 
not  fallen  in  our  favor.  Our  scores  of  arbitration 
treaties  with  foreign  powers  are  the  initial  covenants 
of  international  peace.  That  we  look  upon  them  as 
inviolable,  witness  the  fact  that  the  United  States  openly 
retracted  a  law  giving  commercial  advantages  to  our 
own  coastwise  trade  through  the  Panama  Canal,  be- 
cause it  was  not  in  harmony  with  a  treaty  made  with 
England  years  before. 


AMERICAN  IDEALS  329 

It  may  be  said  that  in  the  United  States  an  ideal 
progress  exists  —  a  progress  that  comes  by  slow,  sure 
movetnent  toward  greater  and  greater  justice.  Gen- 
uine reform  has  usually  followed  sure  and  safe  consti- 
tutional lines  without  any  great  upheavals  of  the  social 
and  economic  order.  In  the  one  instance  in  our  his- 
tory where  wrongs  would  not  yield  to  any  force  less  than 
civil  war,  it  should  be  remembered  that  the  clouds  were 
gathering  for  fifty  years,  during  all  of  which  time  men 
sought  earnestly  some  better  way  to  progress  than 
through  the  conflict  that  finally  came. 

Merely  to  think  of  what  the  American  ideal  is,  and 
then  to  consider  wherein  we  have  failed  to  carry  it  out 
in  practice  is  startling  enough.  No  one  will  pretend 
that  the  United  States  has  always  realized  the  high 
ambition  of  the  majority  of  her  people.  There  are 
many  instances  which  show  that  we  have  often  woe- 
fully fallen  short  of  our  high  purposes. 

We  have  the  Mexican  War  to  be  ashamed  of,  although 
the  result  of  that  war  probably  has  been  for  the  com- 
mon good  in  the  long  run.  We  have  not  yet  justified 
ourselves  to  the  Philippines,  nor  altogether  in  the  mat- 
ter of  the  Panama  Canal  and  Colombia,  but  wq  shall 
eventually  right  any  wrongs  that  can  be  righted  if  wo 
remain  true  to  our  best  desires.  Surely  we  have  not 
failed  so  unmistakably  as  to  forfeit  our  claim  to  ideal- 
ism. If  we  have  sometimes  fallen  short,  it  has  been 
partly  because  our  representatives  have  failed  us  and 
partly  because  we  have  not  organized  a  method  of  al- 
lowing the  will  of  the  people  to  be  more  readily  ex- 
pressed. 

A  rapidly  increasing  number  of  people  are  coming  to 
see  that  the  common  good  must  never  be  forgotten  even 
in  the  free  enjoyment  of  the  rights  of  the  individual. 


330  AMERICAN  DEMOCRACY 

It  is  becoming  plain  to  all  that  if  the  United  States  is  to 
continue  to  build  for  democracy,  the  inspiring  idea  of 
personal  freedom  must  be  constantly  accompanied  by 
the  sobering  idea  of  the  duty  of  responsibility  for  the 
common  good.  The  two  principles  are  inseparable  in 
a  democratic  society;  they  are  its  very  foundation 
stones.  Failure  to  recognize  the  duty  of  safe-guarding 
the  common  good  has  led  to  the  strange  result  that  we 
have  in  the  United  States  an  autocratic  economic  sys- 
tem operating  under  a  democratic  government.  In  the 
enthusiasm  of  pushing  themselves  ahead,  numbers  of  men 
have  become  so  absorbed  in  promoting  "  business  pros- 
perity rather  than  human  welfare "  that  there  has 
grown  up  a  false  and  baseless  aristocracy  of  wealth  and 
influence.  On  the  other  hand  in  opposition  to  this 
class  there  is  a  growing  danger  of  an  aristocracy  of 
labor  which  will  prove  hardly  less  selfish  or  less  harm- 
ful, should  it  lose  sight  of  the  general  welfare  of  all 
the  people. 

THE    PROBLEM    OF    THE    PRESENT 

These  observations  lead  us  to  the  conclusion  that  the 
old  ideals  must  never  be  lost  sight  of  and  that  new  and 
higher  standards  must  be  set  up  if  we  are  to  grasp  the 
full  significance  of  the  term  "  government  of  the  people." 
We  shall  find  on  examination  that  the  citizens  of  the 
United  States  too  often  lack  definite  ideals  with  refer- 
ence to  personal  and  national  efficiency,  thrift,  conser- 
vation, industrial  cooperation,  governmental  responsi- 
bility, and  economic  justice.  We  have  up  to  this  time 
been  in  the  careless,  open-handed,  wasteful  stage  of 
bounteous  youth;  we  must  now,  for  the  sake  of  our 
national  household  and  for  the  sake  of  the  rest  of  the 


AMERICAN  IDEALS  331 

world,  develop  ideals  which  will  correct  extravagant 
errors,  spendthrift  prodigality,  and  economic  outlawrv. 
As  a  nation  and  as  individuals  we  have  thrown  away 
time  and  money  and  opportunity  recklessly  as  if  each 
wasted  moment  and  each  squandered  dollar  and  each 
lost  chance  did  not  add  to  the  world's  burden  of  work 
and  poverty  and  need. 

Such  problems  as  the  negro  question,  illiteracy, 
disease  prevention,  and  many  others  must  be  solved  be- 
fore we  can  be  satisfied  with  the  American  Ideal  as  it 
works  out  in  practice.  "^Some  years  ago  the  game  of 
football  was  played  in  a  manner  that  was  rough  and 
dangerous.  Frequent  serious  accidents  were  glossed 
over  until  at  last  public  sentiment  demanded  protection 
for  the  boys  that  played  this  game.  The  rules  of  the 
game  of  living  must  be  changed  so  that  there  will  not  be 
so  many  men  and  women  deprived  of  the  actual  necessi- 
ties for  healthy  citizenship.  It  is  easy  to  see  that  the 
Americans  who  will  help  in  this  great  work  must  be  en- 
lightened as  to  the  unfairness  of  present  conditions  in 
order  that  they  may  meet  the  need  intelligently. 

To-day  the  real  problem  of  America  is  the  develop- 
ing and  educating  of  the  common  will  in  the  spirit  of 
the  American  ideal,  and  the  making  of  an  instrument  of 
government  through  which  the  real  wishes  of  the  Ameri- 
can people  may  be  expressed.  When  America,  it  may 
be  through  the  generation  now  at  school,  comes  to  full 
realization  of  her  ideals,  the  state  itself  will  have  a 
conscience,  an  honor,  a  sacred  word.  Then  will  all  the 
workings  of  the  government  be  open,  and  plain  to  all 
men ;  then  will  come  the  possibility  of  moral  life  be- 
tween states,  so  that  a  just  League  of  Nations  may  be 
set  up  as  an  expression  of  the  common  will  of  mankind.// 

Signs    are   not   wanting   that   the   future   holds   the 


<S32  AxMERICAN  DEMOCRACY 

realization  of  American  ideals  of  national  and  inter- 
national morality.  The  world  has  heard  Jove's  Thun- 
der on  the  Right,  and  the  first  great  notes  of  an  inter- 
national concert  of  peace  have  found  echoes  through- 
out all  lands.  The  heart  of  mankind  has  re- 
sponded, as  it  always  does,  to  the  expression  of  high 
ideals.  From  the  days  when  Stephen  Langton 
framed  Magna  Charta  and  thus  gave  Englishmen  a 
bulwark  of  liberty,  down  through  the  centuries  until 
the  sad-hearted  Lincoln  uttered  the  briefest  and  most 
inclusive  formula  of  popular  government,  the  words  of 
men  gifted  with  extraordinary  power  of  language  have 
caught  the  attention  and  fired  the  hearts  of  all  people. 
Humanity  has  moved  forward  by  rallying  to  their  noble 
battle  cries  of  progress.  It  matters  not  that  the  real- 
ization of  the  heart's  desire  of  a  people  seldom  comes 
at  the  moment  they  are  spoken,  the  golden  sentences 
remain  and  continue  to  rouse  the  spirit  of  men  until  the 
very  words  make  themselves   come  true. 

THE    IDEALS    OF    WORLD    PEACE 

Not  long  after  the  entrance  of  the  United  States 
into  the  Great  War  there  was  sent  ringing  over  the 
world,  in  language  clearly  understood  by  all  people, 
an  enumeration  of  the  basic  principles  upon  which 
might  be  founded  a  true  community  of  free  peoples 
who,  by  mutual  consent,  should  agree  that  "  material 
force  of  arms  should  give  way  to  moral  right."  Again 
and  again  were  "  American  principles  and  American 
policies  "  held  up  before  the  eyes  of  the  world,  and  to 
each  re-statement  of  these  high  ideals,  the  war-tried 
nations  assented.  No  battles  fought  during  the 
Great  War  had  greater  force  than  the  words  that  were 
spoken  by  the  President  of  the  United  States.     The  Al- 


AMERICAN  IDEALS  333 

lied  powers  of  Europe  agreed  to  and  re-echoed  their 
lofty  sentiments  and  the  whole  world  clung  to  them 
until  the  power  of  militarism  had  been  battered  down 
by  force  of  arms  backed  by  the  "principles  and  policies 
of  forward-looking  men  and  women  everywhere,  of  every 
modern  nation,  of  every  enlightened  community." 

It  is  true  that  when  the  war  was  over,  there  was  a 
coming  down  from  the  high  days  of  struggle  and  the 
hope  of  a  just  but  merciful  settlement  of  the  world's 
affairs  was  not  realized.  But  the  great  ideals  held 
up  to  and  approved  by  the  whole  world  during  the  great 
conflict  will  never  be  erased  from  the  hearts  of  men  who 
love  freedom  and  justice,  will  never  die  because  "  they 
are  the  principles  of  mankind  and  must  prevail." 

We  shall  say  them  over  and  over  again,  "  the  de- 
struction of  arbitrary  powers  that  can  singly  threaten 
the  peace  of  the  world,"  "  openness  of  treaties  openly 
arrived  at,"  "  no  private  international  understand- 
ings," "  diplomacy  frankly  conducted  in  the  public 
view,"  "settlement  of  all  questions  between  nations  upon 
the  basis  of  free  acceptance  by  the  people  immediately 
concerned,"  "  absolute  freedom  of  navigation  of  the 
seas,"  "  the  removal  of  all  economic  barriers,"  "  reduc- 
tion of  armamentsj"  "  territorial  settlements  for  the 
benefit  of  the  populations  concerned,"  "  the  consent  of 
all  nations  to  be  governed  in  their  conduct  toward  each 
other  by  the  same  principles  of  honor  and  respect  for 
the  common  law  of  civilized  society  that  govern  indi- 
vidual citizens,"  "  the  self-determination  of  small  na- 
tions," and  that  great,  compact  summary  of  the  future 
international  code,  "  a  reign  of  law,  based  upon  the 
consent  of  the  governed,  and  sustained  by  the  organized 
opinion  of  mankind." 

It  is  idealistic,  let  us  grant.     But  lack  of  idealism 


334  AMERICAN  DEMOCRACY 

is  what  the  world  is  suffering  from  in  these  troubled 
days ;  more  idealism  must  go  into  our  private  and  pub- 
lic dealings  if  the  American  ideal  is  to  live.  For  just 
as  truly  as  this  country  was  frankly  founded  on  ideal- 
ism, it  cannot  continue  without  constant  support  from 
the  same  source.  We  must  return^  as  George  Mason 
said  we  must,  to  get  a  renewal  from  our  foundation 
principles.  If  the  words  that  were  spoken  during  the 
terrible  days  of  the  Great  War  made  Americans  willing 
to  send  the  best  blood  of  the  nation  to  be  spilled  in  the 
cause  that  was  set  up  as  our  gage  for  battle,  they  must 
have  had  the  force  of  truth ;  and  if  they  were  true  then, 
they  are  true  now.  If  AmeHcans  will  it,  they  can  real- 
ize these  democratic  principles,  not  only  in  the  govern- 
ment of  their  own  country^ but  in  the  government  of  the 
world.  This  last,  not  by  force  of  arms,  but  by  force 
of  example,  for  if  Americans  are  true  to  the  ideals  on 
which  their  country  was  founded,  we  shall  move  with 
slow  steadfastness  toward  the  realization  of  an  all-per- 
vasive love  for  justice  that  will  make  the  whole  world 
safe  for  a  democracy  that  shall  mean  the  "  common 
good  "  of  all  mankind. 


CHAPTER  XVII 

PATRIOTISM 

They  have  rights  who  dare  defend  them. 


LoioelL 


The  great  trust  now  descends  .to  new  hands.  Let  us  apply  our- 
selves to  that  which  is  presented  to  us,  as  our  appropriate  object. 
We  can  win  no  laurels  in  a  war  for  Independence.  Earlier  and 
worthier  hands  have  gathered  them  all.  Nor  are  there  places  for 
us  by  the  side  of  Solon,  of  Alfred,  and  other  founders  of  states. 
Our  Fathers  have  filled  them.  But  there  remains  to  us  a  great 
duty  of  defense  and  preservation;  and  there  is  opened  to  us,  also 
a  noble  pursuit,  to  which  the  spirit  of  the  times  strongly  invites 
us.  Our  proper  business  is  improvement.  Let  our  age  be  an 
age  of  improvement.  In  the  day  of  peace  let  us  advance  the  arts 
of  peace  and  the  works  of  peace.  Let  us  develop  the  resources  of 
the  land,  call  forth  its  powers,  build  up  its  institutions,  promote 
all  its  great  interests,  and  see  whether  we  also,  in  our  day  and 
generation,  may  not  perform  something  worthy  to  be  remembered. 
Daniel  Webster  (Bunker  Hill  Address,  1825.) 

The  patriotism  of  the  people  of  the  United  States, 
like  patriotism  the  whole  world  over,  is  centered  about 
the  country  called  home.  Americans  love  the  very  land 
in  which  they  dwell  —  the  great,  shapeless  cities,  the 
genial  towns  and  rural  villages,  the  pleasant  country- 
sides and  farm-lands,  the  swift  rivers  and  broad  lakes, 
the  mountains,  the  sea-swept  coasts  and  wind-swept 
plains.  The  son  of  New  Hampshire  has  a  special  af- 
fection for  the  hills  that  shut  him  in  as  the  son  of 
Dakota  takes  inspiration  from  the  open  plains  that 
stretch   about  him  on  every   side.     Besides   their  love 

for  the  soil  on  which  they  are  born,  the  citizens  of  many 

335 


336  AMERICAN  DEMOCRACY 

countries  include  a  love  for  their  king  as  part  of  their 
patriotism.  They  look  upon  their  hereditary  monarchs 
as  symbols  of  nationhood.  Americans,  on  the  other 
hand,  have  no  special  veneration  for  their  President, 
because  his  term  of  office  is  too  short  and  he  is  too  near 
the  people  to  be  revered  on  any  grounds  except  his  own 
personal  worth.  Our  political  party  system  has  even 
made  the  chief  executive  a  tempting  target  at  which 
to  cast  bouquets  one  day  or  stones  the  next.  He  can- 
not assume  a  place  too  high  above  the  people  who  elect 
him;  but  must  remain  within'easy  reach  of  their  variant 
attentions. 

But  though  they  have  no  living  symbol  of  nationality, 
Americans  have  developed  a  fictitious  personification  of 
the  nation  made  up  of  qualities  that  they  admire  most 
and  love  best.  This  very  real  personage,  alert,  good- 
natured,  yet  sternly  just,  this  national  hero  and  patron, 
is  affectionately  called,  "  Uncle  Sam."  Into  this  crea- 
tion of  patriotic  impulses  has  gone  something  of  all 
America's  national  heroes,  a  trace  of  Patrick  Henry,  a 
large  portion  of  George  Washington,  much  of  Jeffer- 
son's belief  in  common  man,  the  vigor  of  Andrew  Jack- 
son, and  a  strong  flavor  of  the  rugged  righteousness 
and  patient  humanity  of  Abraham  Lincoln. 

Much  of  the  patriotism  of  America  is  spontaneous, 
natural,  and  unconscious.  Its  strength  and  compel- 
ling force  was  clearly  shown  during  the  testing  time  of 
the  Great  War  when  Americans  went  about  that  dread- 
ful business  almost  as  a  matter  of  course.  Thousands 
of  the  best  young  men  of  America  did  not  wait  to 
"  think  out  "  a  line  of  action,  but  fell  into  rank  at  the 
command  of  the  Government  and  bore  like  veterans  the 
routine  of  camp  and  field. 

They  rallied  under  the  Stars  and  Stripes,  these  young 


PATRIOTISM  337 

Americans,  and  promptly  two  millions  of  them  crossed 
the  sea  to  shell-torn  France.  They  hurried  to  the  bat- 
tle-front, many  with  little  training  in  the  ways  of  war, 
and  there  they  fought  with  such  valor  and  so  intensely 
that  victory  was  won  speedily.  And  when  the  Great 
War  was  over,  the  tide  of  ships  that  took  these  young 
men  to  Europe  came  back  with  them  to  America,  where 
they  laid  aside  the  khaki  badge  of  special  service  to 
Uncle  Sam  to  resume  the  duties  of  citizenship  found  in 
the  ordinary  walks  of  life,  almost  as  if  they  had  not 
taken  part  in  the  most  terrific  conflict  the  world  had 
ever  seen. 

But  life  for  these  young  men  cannot  and  should  not 
be  the  same  as  it  was  before  the  Great  War.  They 
fought  for  an  ideal  for  which  thousands  gave  their  lives. 
Henceforth  it  behooves  those  who  returned  and  those 
who  remained  ''  safe  home  "  to  advance  the  principles  for 
which  so  much  was  sacrificed,  by  upholding  an  active, 
intelligent,  conscientious  patriotism  in  their  own  living 
and  insisting  upon  nothing  less  in  the  lives  of  others. 

For  American  patriots  of  this  and  coming  genera- 
tions must  know  exactly  what  is  meant  by  Americanism; 
they  must  help  to  make  it  possible  to  readily  register 
the  will  of  the  people ;  they  must  insist  upon  the  educa- 
tion of  the  growing  youth  in  the  duties  of  citizenship ; 
they  must  wipe  out  illiteracy;  they  must  develop  good 
Americans  out  of  the  immigrants  that  have  already 
come  and  that  will  come  to  this  country ;  and  above  all, 
they  must  make  it  possible  for  every  one  to  attain  what 
Americans  have  come  to  consider  a  decent  living. 
These  things  must  be  done  even  at  the  cost  of  personal 
sacrifices  in  time  and  money  and  effort.  In  a  word, 
the  people  of  the  United  States  must  make  for  them- 
selves a  definition  of  patriotism  that  is  more  specific 


338  AMERICAN  DEMOCRACY 

than  mere  boasting  and  inspires  more  action  than  the 
display  of  Fourth  of  July  fireworks.  Their  promise  of 
allegiance  must  spring  from  their  very  hearts  and  affect 
their  conduct  toward  their  fellowmen  if  America,  in  the 
best  sense,  is  to  be  "  the  land  of  the  free  and  the  home 
of  the  brave." 

At  the  close  of  the  Great  War,  many  American  citi- 
zens find  themselves  very  much  confused  between 
two  very  aggressive  and  active  small  groups  whose 
members  cannot  be  considered  as  believers  in  the  Amer- 
ican ideal,  which,  as  all  Americans  should  know,  sets 
as  its  object  the  greatest  freedom  of  individual  develop- 
ment consistent  with  the  general  good.  On  the  one 
hand  are  those  who  hold  that  nothing  short  of  a  com- 
plete economic  and  social  Revolution  will  cure  the  ills 
of  society.  The  short-cut  to  that  desired  end  they 
conceive  as  being  accomplished  by  the  Bolshevist  forces 
in  Russia.  They  seem  to  be  anxious  to  induce  the  peo- 
ple of  the  United  States  to  adopt  the  form  of  govern- 
ment that  has  controlled  Russia  since  the  Great  War, 
and  is  proving  of  very  doubtful  benefit  to  the  people  as  a 
whole,  because  the  men  in  control  are  animated  more  by 
a  determination  to  put  their  political  and  eco- 
nomic theories  into  practice  than  by  a  real  considera- 
tion for  the  common  good.  On  the  other  hand,  like  a 
stone  wall,  are  the  capitalistic  interests,  composed  of 
groups  of  individuals  who  often  seem  to  know  less  of 
patriotism  than  do  the  social  revolutionists.  In  fact, 
big  business,  which  should  be  a  bulwark  of  patriotism 
because  it  is  made  up  largely  of  educated  men  who  have 
enjoyed  unusual  opportunity,  is  often  a  chief  source  of 
the  economic  discontent  that  stirs  men  to  propose  un- 
tried and  doubtful  theories  of  government  on  a  world 
scale.     There  must  be  a  real  awakening  on  both  sides, 


PATRIOTISM  339 

for  not  until  Capital  and  Labor  are  willing  to  consider 
each  other  as  necessarily  co-workers  in  the  great  tasks 
of  industry  will  the  American  ideal  be  realized. 

The  good  American  citizen  should  examine  carefully 
the  motives  and  methods  of  the  forces  that  make  for 
either  of  these  social  and  economic  extremes,  remem- 
bering that  while  there  are  elements  of  strength  in  both, 
the  extremes  of  society  are  apt  to  be  its  weakest  points. 
He  should  ever  keep  in  mind  the  fact  that  the  motive 
power  on  the  one  hand  is  too  often  selfishness  filled 
with  hatred,  while  on  the  other,  it  is  selfishness  coupled 
with  a  disregard  for  the  rights  of  others. 

He  will  find  that  in  the  world  upheaval  of  the  Great 
War,  forces  have  been  let  loose  that  threaten  to  swamp 
civilization  in  the  dark  and  hopeless  flood  of  economic 
and  political  revolution;  Many  of  the  leaders  in  ad- 
vocating revolution  are  men  who  have  suffered  political, 
economic,  and  perhaps  religious  oppression  in  Europe. 
They  have  been  hungry  and  cold  and  repressed.  They 
came  to  this  country  filled  with  the  hatred  of-  their  op- 
pressors. Here  they  see  only  another  form  of  autoc- 
racy when  wealth  is  piled  up  in  the  hands  of  a  few,  and 
hundreds  of  thousands  are  receiving  less  than  a  decent 
wage.  Having  no  in-bred  love  for  the  United  States, 
they  seek  to  work  out  in  this  country  the  Revolution 
that  they  have  set  up  in  their  minds  as  the  only  way 
by  which  justice  can  be  secured.  These  leaders  have 
rallied  to  their  standard  many  other  dissatisfied  per- 
sons both  foreign  and  native-born. 

They  do  not  realize  that  the  great  progress  that  has 
been  made  in  America  has  come  slowly  and  surely  as  the 
result  of  education  and  by  the  force  of  public  opinion. 
They  are  not  impressed  with  the  fact  that  in  the  United 
States   when   a  majority   of   the  people   are   ready   to 


340       •  AMERICAN  DEMOCRACY 

demand  a  change,  it  will  come  without  any  extraordi- 
nary upheaval  of  society.  In  fact,  the  will  of  the  ma- 
jority means  nothing  to  this  "inspired"  minority  of 
advanced  thinkers.  They  expect  to  have  a  new  world 
within  their  own  lifetime.  The  true  revolutionist  in  his 
zeal  to  establish  "  mass  "  rights  by  the  "  Revolution  " 
is  willing  to  wreck  the  present  order,  that  there  may 
come  into  being  a  great  international  brotherhood  of 
laborers  who  shall  rule  the  world. 

The  plain  American  who  sincerely  wishes  to  do  his 
share  for  the  common  good  will  need  to  walk  carefully, 
for  he  will  often  find  that  revolutionary  leaders  are 
men  who  have,  or  think  they  have,  high  ideals  of  the 
brotherhood  of  man,  and  are  willing  to  make  great  per- 
sonal sacrifices  to  bring  about  the  ends  they  are  striv- 
ing for  —  better  conditions  of  living  for  the  masses. 
This  cause  should,  in  itself,  bring  to  its  standard  the 
great,  the  wise,  and  the  good,  from  the  ranks  of  both 
labor  and  capital.  But  as  our  American  scrutinizes 
the  leaders  of  revolution  closely,  as  he  talks  with  them 
of  economic  conditions,  of  government,  of  life,  and  free- 
dom, he  will  see  plainly  that  they  base  their  hope  of 
reform  on  material  prosperity  alone  and  deny  the  needs 
of  the  spirit.  He  will  find  that  many  of  those  who 
are  drawn  to  the  standard  of  revolt  are  immature  per- 
sons, talkative  and  egotistical  youths,  who,  with  rash 
hands,  are  eager  to  tear  down  the  towering  fabric  of 
democracy,  reared  through  the  ages  with  toilsome  pa- 
tience. They  have  no  substitute  to  offer  that  even  pre- 
tends to  be  for  the  common  good  of  all  the  people.  Few 
of  these  ardent  revolutionists  can  claim  any  jot  of  the 
title  of  reformer.  They  are  filled  with  hate  of  the 
**  capitalistic  class  "  and  long  for  the  day  when  these 


PATRIOTISM  341 

so-called  oppressors  of  the  workers  will  be  stripped  of 
their  wealth  and  power. 

The  American  who  looks  back  as  well  as  forward 
will  not  be  led  astray  by  false  prophets;  for  while 
most  of  the  thinking  people  in  the  world  to-day  believe 
that  great  economic  changes  are  due  to  take  place,  in 
order  that  greater  justice  and. more  nearly  equal  oppor- 
tunity may  be  open  to  all,  they  hope  to  bring  about 
reforms  by  lawful  methods.  Among  the  social  revolu- 
tionists they  see  no  advocate  of  permanent  reform, 
though  they  may  recognize  that  his  clamorous  protest 
is  in  itself  a  help  toward  a  better  day. 

The  true  reformer  takes  into  account  the  good  which 
is  already  established.  He  sees  life  in  its  relation  to 
the  past  and  its  probable  effect  on  the  future.  He 
loves  things  as  they  are  and  will  not  use  physical  force 
except  as  a  last  resort.  He  is  willing  to  spend  all  his 
days  in  perfecting  his  philosophy  and  he  is  willing  to 
die  for  his  faith.  He  can  afford  to  wait ;  it  is  the 
cause  that  is  most  precious  to  him,  and  he  knows  that 
if  the  cause  be  just,  nothing  in  the  world  can  hinder 
its  ultimate  realization. 

After  the  open-eyed,  young  American  has  considered 
well  the  beliefs  of  the  revolutionist  and  studied  his  pro- 
posed methods  of  reform,  he  will  look  at  the  other  ex- 
treme where  he  will  find  conditions  equally  puzzling. 
For  while  the  revolutionist  makes  open  profession  of 
his  ideals,  he  will  hear  in  the  ranks  of  reaction  loud- 
voiced  protestations  of  patriotic  zeal.  He  may  even 
have  to  tear  away  the  folds  of  the  American  flag  before 
he  comes  at  the  truth  that  selfish  greed,  clothed  in  rich 
garments,  considers  neither  the  welfare  of  the  nation 
nor  the  happiness  of  men.     He  will,  if  he  be  wise,  ob- 


342  AMERICAN  DEMOCRACY 

serve  the  operations  of  big  business  that  fall  within  his 
own  observation;  he  will  read  books  dealing  with  the 
industrial  world;  he  will  study  labor  conditions,  labor- 
unions,  and  labor  statistics;  he  will  watch  associations 
of  business  men  —  bankers,  wholesalers,  shippers,  and 
all  who  have  large  control.  He  will  note  with  serious 
questioning  the  business  interests  that  are  at  work 
in  the  halls  of  state  and  national  government. 

Though  the  American  student  will  get  much  of  his 
information  by  reading,  he  should  not  be  so  simple  as  to 
believe  all  that  he  sees  in  print.  He  must  recognize 
that  the  newspaper  he  reads  does  not  depend  for  its 
support  upon  the  few  pennies  he  pays  for  it,  but  upon 
the  advertisers,  who  may  withdraw  their  patronage  if  its 
columns  "  knock  "  big  business.  He  will,  with  this  in 
mind,  read  discriminatingly,  knowing  that  the  streams 
from  which  plain  people  drink  their  daily  draught  of 
news  are  sometimes  contaminated  at  the  source.  He 
must  not  be  entirely  surprised  at  this,  for  makers  of 
newspapers  must  live,  and  not  until  the  readers  are 
willing  to  bear  a  good  portion  of  the  cost  of  publishing 
the  news,  not  until  the  readers  of  newspapers  are  intel- 
ligent enough  to  make  the  publisher  know  that  what  is 
printed  is  going  out  to  a  keen-minded  and  thoroughly 
awakened  public,  not  until  the  many  good  newspapers 
are  appreciated  and  supported  as  they  should  be,  may 
we  be  certain  of  finding  in  every  newspaper  first-hand 
information,  unbiased  by  the  interests  of  the  selfish. 
Until  then,  every  American  must  discriminate  between 
the  bad  and  the  good,  the  unessential  and  the  important, 
sifting  and  w^cighing  and  finally  selecting  the  things 
that  are  worth  while.  For  when  all  is  said,  the  news- 
papers are  the  textbooks  of  the  times  and  in  their  pages 


PATRIOTISM  3i3 

appear,  often  unheralded,  golden  words  that  will  live 
when  the  chaff  of  current  writing  has  blown  away. 

Between  the  two  extremes,  the  revolutionists  and  the 
interests,  are  the  great  mass  of  American  people,  for 
the  most  part  comfortable,  well-fed,  intelligent,  well- 
meaning,  but  extremely  individualistic  and  frequently 
not  alive  to  the  questions  of  the  day.  At  heart  these 
decent,  honest,  fair-minded  folk  desire  right  and  jus- 
tice for  all  men.  They  have  been  indifferent  because 
they  have  been  uninformed  and  very  busy  with  their 
own  affairs.  Even  when  glimmerings  of  the  truth  have 
reached  them,  the  averseness  to  change  that  is  natural 
in  all  people,  great  or  small,  has  made  them  look  with 
suspicion  on  new  plans.  The  chances  are  that,  with- 
out really  informing  themselves  on  the  merits  of  the 
questions  in  dispute,  they  begin  to  call  names  and  excite 
prejudices.  Real  reform  is  often  sadly  hampered  by 
this  tendency  of  well-intentioned  citizens. 

To-day  any  one  who  wishes  to  help  social  and  eco- 
nomic progress  and  who  dares  to  express  doubts  of  the 
present  economic  system  of  the  United  States  is  apt  to 
be  called  a  "  socialist,"  an  "  anarchist,"  an  "  I.  W. 
W.,"  or  a  "  Bolshevik."  On  the  other  hand,  if  he  is 
steadfast  in  his  desire  to  exercise  even  a  moderate  degree 
of  patience  and  hesitation  before  casting  his  lot  with 
measures  advocated  by  extreme  revolutionists,  he  is 
referred  to  by  them  as  "  reactionary,"  as  "  conserv- 
ative," or  —  depth  of  benighted  hopelessness  — •  as 
"  bourgeoisie." 

No  wonder  that  the  plain  American  is  confused  and 
doubtful  of  the  course  he  should  pursue.  Yet  it  is  with 
this  great,  heretofore  politically  inactive  mass  of  fair- 
minded,   sane-thinking  Americans   and  with  their  sons 


344  AMERICAN  DEMOCRACY 

and  daughters  who  are  now  at  school  that  the  well- 
being  of  the  future  lies ;  for  when  the  idea  of  economic 
justice  has  fully  taken  hold  of  them,  the  machinery  for 
carrying  out  the  purposes  of  the  American  people  will 
be  set  in  motion.  There  are  signs  that  such  an  awak- 
ening is  at  hand.  Since  the  days  of  the  war,  senators 
and  representatives  at  Washington  have  been  "  hearing 
from  home  " ;  the  mails  are  flooded  with  inquiries  as  to 
the  reasons  for  the  stand  individual  legislators  are  tak- 
ing on  important  measures.  Representatives  are  find- 
ing out  that  they  merely  "  represent  "  the  sovereign 
people,  that  they,  in  themselves,  are  not  the  sovereign 
power. 

This  method  of  questioning  is  a  very  excellent  one 
for  Americans  to  use  in  testing  measures  and  persons 
who  stand  for  them.  Every  representative  of  the  peo- 
ple should  be  able  and  willing  sooner  or  later  to  ex- 
plain his  reasons  for  advocating  measures.  This  does 
not  mean  at  all  that  representatives  must  be  slaves 
of  their  constituents.  A  representative  at  the  scene 
of  action  should  know  better  than  his  constituents  all 
angles  of  any  question  that  comes  up  for  legislation 
and  so  may  not  hold  the  same  viewpoint  as  the  unin- 
formed people  who  elected  him.  But  he  must  be  will- 
ing to  enlighten  them,  or  if  that  is  not  permissible, 
either  to  let  time  prove  him  right,  or  expect  to  lose  his 
public  office.  The  American,  properly  inquisitive, 
should  seek  to  know  who  are  a  candidate's  backers, 
where  his  campaign  funds  come  from,  who  his  relatives- 
in-law  may  be,  what  his  past  record  seems  to  reveal, 
what  stripe  of  newspaper  and  political  periodical  sup- 
ports him ;  in  short,  whether  he  appears  to  be  working 
for  himself  or  for  the  common  good.  Thus,  without 
much  excitement  on  the  part  of  the  voter,  the  burden 


PATRIOTISM  3i5 

of  proving  that  he  is  indeed  fit  to  wear  the  robe  of 
office  can  be  placed  directly  upon  the  man  who  asks 
permission  to  represent  his  district. 

When  the  time  comes  that  every  voter  is  awake  to  the 
necessity  of  safe-guarding  this  precious  "  general 
good,"  there  will  be  set  up  in  the  United  States  the 
truly  "  responsible  ministry  "  that  the  framers  of  the 
Constitution  failed  to  provide  for.  Then  will  repre- 
sentative government  express  the  will  of  the  people  and 
not  the  will  of  an  obscure  and  selfish  influence.  The 
most  potent  agency  to  secure  honest  official  conduct  is 
the  jealous  eye  of  the  people,  whose  good  opinion  is  per- 
haps the  most  prized  reward  that  an  official  can  receive. 
But  in  keeping  a  sharp  eye  on  officials,  the  American 
citizen  should  not  forget  the  obligations  of  justice  and 
fair-mindedness  toward  his  elected  representatives.  It 
is  easy  to  cast  slurs.  Constituents  should  exercise  pa- 
tience and  tolerance,  should  try  to  understand  the 
causes  back  of  the  acts  of  their  representatives,  who 
are  often  misunderstood  because  not  given  a  chance  to 
explain  their  votes. 

The  process  of  change  in  forms  of  government  should 
be  conscious  and  deliberate;  we  should  see  clearly  the 
new  need  and  set  about  a  reconstruction  only  after  due 
and  sane  consideration.  The  bringing  on  of  that  good 
time  will  be  no  over-night  accomplishment;  rather  will 
it  be  a  slow,  steady  progress  set  in  motion  by  the  gen- 
eral responsibility  which  Americans  as  individuals  will 
assume  for  the  conduct  of  the  affairs  of  the  United 
States  of  America.  Then  will  be  created  a  new  ideal  of 
patriotism  in  which,  not  fighting  or  dying,  but  living 
for  one's  country  will  be  recognized  as  the  patriot's 
first  duty. 

The  forces  of  revolution  that  threaten  America  on 


346  AMERICAN  DEMOCRACY 

the  one  hand  cannot  be  driven  out  by  blows,  bad  names, 
or  forcible  suppression.  They  must  be  overcome  by 
logical  argument  and  by  pointing  out  a  better  way. 
Ideas  may  be  changed,  but  they  cannot  be  killed.  Both 
Lincoln  and  Jefferson  said  that  error  is  not  dangerous 
when  truth  is  left  free  to  combat  it.  The  power  of 
wealth  that  looms  on  the  other  hand  must  be  met  by 
keen  intelligence  and  cool  determination  backed  by 
innumerable  hosts  armed  with  the  ballot. 

That  universal  education  has  been  a  dominating 
American  ideal,  is  a  most  significantly  hopeful  fact. 
An  educated  people  will  never  allow  itself  to  be  indefi- 
nitely hoodwinked.  To-day  American  education  must 
take  a  new  direction.  Americans  must  read  widely  in 
history,  in  biography,  in  politics,  in  the  social  sciences. 
They  must  be  able  to  discuss  problems  on  their  own 
merits,  not  on  a  selfish,  personal  basis.  There  must  be 
a  determined  effort  to  organize  brain  power,  that  the 
great  body  of  people  may  be  able  to  get  ideas  by 
means  of  free,  fair,  and  unheated  discussion.  Though 
there  will  probably  never  be  absolute  agreement  of 
political  parties,  the  peopk  of  a  country  must  be  in 
essential  agreement,  if  there  is  to  be  any  approach  to  a 
community  of  will. 

The  thinking  young  American  will  soon  learn  that  in 
politics,  nothing  absolutely  new  can  be  safely  at- 
tempted; he  will  realize  that  the  sensible  method  of 
progress  is  by  careful  experiment;  no  nation  can  leap 
precipitately  into  a  heaven  on  earth  while  human  nature 
retains  its  imperfections.  But  while  he  may  recognize 
the  unwisdom  of  following  revolutionary  paths,  there  is 
nothing  in  the  world  to  hinder  the  making  of  great 
changes,  nothing  to  prevent  reforms  that  may  bring 
greater  justice  to  all  men,  nor  the  enactment  of  laws 


PATRIOTISM 


347 


that  will  place  restraining  limits  upon  illegitimate  busi- 
ness. 


348  AMERICAN  DEMOCRACY 

Americans  must  remember  that  it  is  not  any  single 
person's  fault  that  such  unfair  conditions  in  the  world 
of  capital  and  labor  have  come  about.  But  it  will  be 
the  American's  fault  if  such  conditions  are  not  made 
better,  else  why  all  this  education  at  such  great  ex- 
pense. Boys  and  girls  must  learn  for  themseh'es  that 
success  is  not  always  measured  by  dollars.  If  the 
young  people  now  in  school  are  merely  waiting  until 
they  grow  up  to  get  into  the  money-grabbing  game,  if 
success  to  them  means  merely  a  large  bank  account, 
and  more  money  to  spend,  we  might  as  well  shut  up  our 
schools,  give  up  our  belief  in  the  "  common  good,"  and 
join  a  mad  procession  headed  toward  chaos. 

When  boys  grow  to  manhood  they  must  carry  on 
the  game  of  life  after  the  manner  in  which  they  are 
taught  to  play  on  the  playground.  In  the  code  of  boy- 
hood's honor,  the  bully,  the  tight-fisted  fellow,  the  brag- 
gart, and  the  crooked  sport  have  no  standing.  Some- 
thing of  this  spirit  of  intolerant  exclusion  must  become 
the  ground-work  of  business  morality.  The  man  who 
refuses  to  play  fair  in  business  must  be  shut  out  from 
the  good  fellowship  of  right-thinking  men.  Americans 
must  change  the  present  business  code;  there  must  be 
a  new  reaction  to  fair  play,  personal  obligations,  sacred- 
ness  of  contract,  and  honesty  in  all  transactions ;  there 
must  be  a  real  belief  and  practice  in  the  rule  of  live 
and  let  live,  the  "  do  as  you  would  be  done  by  "  of 
childhood ;  a  new  reading  of  the  commandment,  "  Thou 
shalt  love  thy  neighbor  as  thyself." 

Nor  need  Americans  fear  to  examine  carefully  Amer- 
ican institutions  or  even  to  criticize  our  fundamental 
law.  It  must  be  remembered  that  the  Constitution  of 
the  United  States,  though  it  is  truly  a  great  document 
of  human  liberty,  is  not  a  sacred  writing,  is  not  an  in- 


PATRIOTISM  349 

spired  and  unalterable  bible  of  political  liberty.  It 
was  drawn  up  by  men  who  were  after  all,  but  men. 
They  did  the  best  they  could  to  make  a  form  of  govern- 
ment that  would  fit  into  the  conditions  that  existed  at 
the  time.  During  the  first  hundred  years  following 
1789,  it  was  not  customary  to  criticize  the  Constitution 
in  the  outspoken  manner  of  to-day,  but  criticism  is  no 
longer  considered  treason;  for  every  one  knows  that 
with  the  changes  that  have  come  in  our  nation,  changes 
in  the  machinery  of  government  must  be  made  to  meet 
new  needs. 

Nothing  is  impossible  in  the  United  States,  a  country 
which  specializes  in  doing  things  "that  can't  be  done." 
The  growing  generation  scarcely  realizes  its  possi- 
bilities. If  the  pupils  in  one  class  in  one  high  school 
in  any  big  American  city  should  make  up  their  minds 
that  when  they  came  to  be  men  and  women  they  would 
make  their  city  beautiful,  without  slums,  without  low 
dens  of  vice,  they  could  do  it,  though  half  the  number 
might  give  up  the  enterprise  before  reaching  manhood 
or  womanhood.  And  it  would  be  a  far  more  interesting 
and  absorbing  accomplishment  than  piling  up  useless 
millions.  Jane  Addams  and  Jacob  Riis  have  proved 
to  this  generation  that  there  is  no  need  to  complain  of  a 
lack  of  opportunity  for  adventures  in  the  absorbing 
cause  of  humanity. 

In  the  city  of  New  Orleans  stands  the  first  statue 
erected  in  the  United  States  to  the  memory  of  a  woman. 
The  name  on  the  pedestal  is  simply  "  Margaret."  Thus 
the  citizens  of  New  Orleans  have  shown  their  gratitude 
to  the  Orphans'  Friend,  Margaret  Haughery,  an  unlet- 
tered working  woman,  who  was  an  angel  of  mercy  to 
black  and  white  alike.  For  every  loaf  of  bread  sold 
from  her  bake-shop,  she  gave   another  to  the  poor. 


350  .  AMERICAN  DEMOCRACY 

Although  she  achieved  no  nation-wide  fame,  thousands 
in  her  own  city  have  called  her  blessed. 

The  list  of  duties  the  performance  of  which  go  to 
make  up  what  is  called  patriotism,  is  already  long,  and 
as  yet  nothing  has  been  said  about  physical  education, 
which  until  recently  has  been  almost  totally  neglected. 
It  need  only  be  said  that  nearly  one-third  of  the  young 
men  examined  for  service  in  the  army  were  pronounced 
"  unfit."  It  should  be  but  a  poor  sort  of  patriotism 
that  would  fail  to  change  this  condition  now  that  it 
has  been  recognized.  Nor  has  one  word  been  said  of 
Americanizing  the  foreigner.  No  need  of  that  here, 
for  if  the  American  can  be  led  to  Americanize  himself, 
the  foreigner  will  readily  follow  in  his  footsteps. 

Above  all,  the  American  should  insist  that  his  belief 
in  God  find  expression  in  art  —  literature,  music,  paint- 
ing, sculpture,  architecture —  and  in  life  itself,  in  order 
that  his  spiritual  nature  may  play  a  greater  part,  in 
his  patriotism.  If  we  really  believe  in  God,  let  us  not 
be  shame-faced  about  voicing  and  living  our  belief. 
A  trust  in  the  Creator  has  at  least  the  honorable  pre- 
cedent of  the  ages;  the  practice  of  the  laws  of  God  in 
our  daily  lives  has  always  made  for  better  conditions  of 
living  and  should  not  now  be  pushed  out  of  considera- 
tion as  a  strengthening  influence  in  the  life  of  the 
nation. 

The  American  of  the  period  following  the  Great  War 
can  no  longer  remain  a  self-satisfied  provincial;  he 
must  look  out  over  the  whole  round  world  and  try  to 
understand  the  other  people  of  this  planet.  He  must 
recognize  that  there  exists  not  only  Great  Britain  and 
Ireland,  Belgium,  France,  Germany,  Scandinavia,  and 
Switzerland,  but  that  there  is  also  a  Spain,  Portugal, 
and  Italy,  a  Czecho-Slovakia,  a  Poland,  a  Serbia ;  that 


PATRIOTISM  351 

there  is  a  new,  unknown  Russia,  that  the  fragments  of 
the  old  Russia  have  resolved  themselves  into  a  Fin- 
land, an  Ukrainian  Republic,  an  Esthonia,  and  a  Lith- 
uania; he  must  travel  on,  in  his  mind  at  least,  to  Asia 
with  its  unawakened  China  and  its  thoroughly  alert 
Japan,  its  India,  its  Mesapotamia,  its  Persia  and  its 
Turkey ;  he  must  reckon  with  Australia  and  the  islands 
that  neighbor  —  the  East  Indies,  New  Guinea,  and  New 
Zealand ;  he  must  look  over  Africa,  that  great  colonial 
prize  at  which  the  European  nations  are  decorously 
stretching  out  velvet-clothed  iron  hands ;  he  must  come 
round  to  his  home  again  and  view  the  countries  to  the 
south  of  us,  the  South  American  republics,  the  West 
Indies,  and  unhappy  Mexico.  A  vast  outlook  and  one 
to  fill  nights  and  days  with  study  for  the  American 
patriot  who  undertakes  the  project  of  becoming  a  cos- 
mopolitan. 

The  signers  at  Philadelphia  set  the  United  States  of 
America  a  big  task  when  they  decided  to  start  out 
on  the  principle  that  governments  derive  their  just 
powers  from  the  consent  of  the  governed.  Unless  the 
American  people  of  the  present  day  wish  to  throw  this 
doctrine  overboard  —  and  there  seems  to  be  no  such 
desire  —  they  are  in  honor  bound  to  show  to  the  hopeful 
new  republics  which  have  been  carved  out  of  the  em- 
pires of  Europe,  that  they  arc  willing  to  undertake  as 
their  "  fortunate  duty,"  the  task  of  proving  that  a  gov- 
ernment by  the  people  is  possible. 

Being  a  patriot  is  a  man's  and  a  woman's  job  and 
calls  for  the  same  qualities  of  patience,  forethought, 
and  self-control  that  are  required  in  making  a  worth- 
while success  anywhere,  at  any  time.  Above  all  things, 
Americans  need  to  stand  off  and  take  a  look  at  them- 
selves.    They  need  to  ask  themselves  whether  they  really 


852  AMERICAN  DEMOCRACY 

believe  in  democracy  or  are  merely  in  love  with  the  fine 
phrases  in  which  its  ideal  have  been  expressed.  They 
need  to  press  the  question  of  social  justice  home  to 
themselves,  to  stand  before  their  own  eyes  and  find  out 
whether  they  are  willing  to  advocate  fair  play  to  all 
men  or  merely  to  themselves  and  a  few  favored  others. 
They  must  find  out  whether,  having  fought  to  make  the 
world  safe  for  democracy,  they  know  what  it  is  to  be 
democratic;  they  must  follow  the  logic  of  truth  and 
know  themselves  for  what  they  are,  not  for  what  they 
profess. 

The  young  people  who  are  in  school  to-day  are  stand- 
ing on  the  top  of  the  world.  They  are  heirs  to  all 
that  has  come  down  through  the  ages ;  in  these  years 
the  whole  world  is  thrilling  with  great  ideals,  and  is  sick 
with  longing  to  have  the  ideals  come  true.  The  gen- 
eration now  in  school  has  a  mighty  task  before  it.  To 
them  the  torch  has  been  thrown.  They  will  not  dare  to 
break  faith,  these  men  and  women  of  to-morrow,  who 
must  not  only  work  for  the  common  good,  but  who 
must  carry  on.  For  security  against  national,  polit- 
ical, and  economic  disaster,  through  carelessness,  in- 
difference, and  ignorance,  will  be  assured  to  the  future 
only  by  the  training  of  the  oncoming  hosts  of  the  new 
generations  in  the  principles  of  right  living,  justice,  and 
fair  play.  In  this  way  only  can  be  maintained  a  per- 
manent, standing  army  of  citizens,  the  fighting  men  of 
which  have  been  physically,  mentally,  and  spiritually 
prepared  to  do  their  share  of  the  world's  work. 


APPENDIX  I 
THE  DECLARATION  OF  INDEPENDENCE 

In  Congress,  July  Jf,  1776 

The  unanimous  Declaration  of  the  thirteen  united 
States  of  America 

When  in  the  Course  of  human  events,  it  betomes  neces- 
sary for  one  people  to  dissolve  the  political  bands  which 
have  connected  them  with  another,  and  to  assume  among 
the  Powers  of  the  earth,  the  separate  and  equal  station 
to  which  the  Laws  of  Nature  and  of  Nature's  God  entitle 
them,  a  decent  respect  to  the  opinions  of  mankind  requires 
that  they  should  declare  the  causes  which  impel  them  to 
the  separation. 

We  hold  these  truths  to  be  self-evident,  that  all  men  are 
created  equal,  that  they  are  endowed  by  their  Creator  with 
certain  unalienable  Rights,  that  among  these  are  Life, 
Liberty  and  the  pursuit  of  Happiness.  That  to  secure 
these  rights.  Governments  are  instituted  among  Men,  de- 
riving their  just  powers  from  the  consent  of  the  governed. 
That  whenever  any  Form  of  Government  becomes  destruc- 
tive of  these  ends,  it  is  the  Right  of  the  People  to  alter  or 
to  abolish  it,  and  to  institute  new  Government,  laying  its 
foundation  on  such  principles  and  organizing  its  powers 
in  such  form,  as  to  them  shall  seem  most  likely  to  effect 
their  Safety  and  Happiness.  Prudence,  indeed,  will  dic- 
tate that  Governments  long  established  should  not  be 
changed  for  light  and  transient  causes ;  and  accordingly  all 
experience  hath  shown,  that  mankind  are  more  disposed  to 
suffer,  while  evils  are  sufferable,  than  to  right  themselves 
by  abolishing  the  ■  forms  to  which  they  are  accustomed. 
But  when  a  long  train  of  abuses  and  usurpations,  pursuing 

353 


354  AMERICAN  DEMOCRACY 

invariably  the  same  Object  evinces  a  design  to  reduce  them 
under  absolute  Despotism,  it  is  their  right,  it  is  their  duty, 
to  throw  off  such  Government,  and  to  provide  new  Guards 
for  their  future  security. —  Such  has  been  the  patient  suf- 
ferance of  these  Colonies;  and  such  is  now  the  necessity 
which  constrains  them  to  alter  their  former  Systems  of  Gov- 
ernment. The  history  of  the  present  King  of  Great 
Britain  is  a  history  of  repeated  injuries  and  usurpations, 
all  having  in  direct  object  the  establishment  of  an  abso- 
lute Tyranny*  over  these  States.  To  prove  this,  let  Facts 
be  submitted  to  a  candid  world. 

He  has  refused  his  Assent  to  Laws^  the  most  wholesome 
and  necessary  for  the  public  good. 

He  has  forbidden  his  Governors  to  pass  Laws  of  im- 
mediate and  pressing  importance,  unless  suspended  in  their 
operation  till  his  Assent  should  be  obtained;  and  when  so 
suspended,  he  has  utterly  neglected  to  attend  to  them. 

He  has  refused  to  pass  other  Laws  for  the  accommoda- 
tion of  large  districts  of  people,  unless  those  people  would 
relinquish  the  right  of  Representation  in  the  Legislature, 
a  right  inestimable  to  them  and  formidable  to  tyrants 
only. 

He  has  called  together  legislative  bodies  at  places  un- 
usual, uncomfortable,  and  distant  from  the  depository  of 
their  Public  Records,  for  the  sole  purpose  of  fatiguing 
them  into  compliance  with  his  measures. 

He  has  dissolved  Representative  Houses  repeatedly,  for 
opposing  with  manly  firmness  his  invasions  on  the  rights 
of  the  people. 

He  has  refused  for  a  long  time,  after  such  dissolutions, 
to  cause  others  to  be  elected;  whereby  the  Legislative 
Powers,  incapable  of  Annihilation,  have  returned  to  the 
People  at  large  for  their  exercise;  the  State  remaining  in 
the  mean  time  exposed  to  all  the  dangers  of  invasion  from 
without,  and  convulsions  within. 

He  has  endeavoured  to  prevent  the  population  of  these 
States ;  for  that  purpose  obstructing  the  Laws  for  Natural- 


APPENDICES  355 

ization  of  Foreigners;  refusing  to  pass  others  to  encourage 
their  migration  hither,  and  raising  the  conditions  of  new 
Appropriations  of  Lands. 

He  has  obstructed  the  Administration  of  Justice,  by  re- 
fusing his  Assent  to  Laws  for  establishing  Judiciary 
Powers. 

He  has  made  Judges  dependent  on  his  Will  alone,  for 
the  tenure  of  their  offices,  and  the  amount  and  payment 
of  their  salaries. 

He  has  erected  a  multitude  of  New  Offices,  and  sent 
hither  swarms  of  Officers  to  harass  our  People,  and  eat 
out  their  substance. 

He  has  kept  among  us,  in  times  of  peace.  Standing 
Armies  without  the  Consent  of  our  legislature. 

He  has  affected  to  render  the  Military  independent  of 
and  superior  to  the  Civil  Power. 

He  has  combined  with  others  to  subject  us  to  a  jurisdic- 
tion foreign  to  our  constitution,  and  unacknowledged  by  our 
laws;  giving  his  Assent  to  their  Acts  of  pretended  Legisla- 
tion: 

For  quartering  large  bodies  of  armed  troops  among  us: 

For  protecting  them,  by  a  mock  Trial,  from  Punishment 
for  any  Murders  which  they  should  commit  on  the  Inhabit- 
ants of  these  States: 

For  cutting  off  our  Trade  with  all  parts  of  the  world: 

For  imposing  taxes  on  us  without  our  Consent: 

For  depriving  us  in  many  cases,  of  the  benefits  of  Trial 
by  Jury: 

For  transporting  us  beyond  Seas  to  be  tried  for  pre- 
tended  offences: 

For  abolishing  the  free  System  of  English  Laws  in  a 
neighboring  Province,  establishing  therein  an  Arbitrary 
government,  and  enlarging  its  Boundaries  so  as  to  render 
it  at  once  an  example  and  fit  instrument  for  introducing  the 
same  absolute  rule  into  these  Colonies: 

For    taking    away    our    Charters,    abolishing    our    most 


356  AMERICAN  DEMOCRACY 

valuable  Laws,  and  altering  fundamentally  the  Forms  of 
our  Governments: 

For  suspending  our  own  Legislatures,  and  declaring 
themselves  invested  with  Power  to  legislate  for  us  in  all 
cases  whatsoever. 

He  has  abdicated  Government  here,  by  declaring  us  out 
of  his  Protection  and  waging  War  against  us. 

He  has  plundered  our  seas,  ravaged  our  Coasts,  burnt 
our  towns,  and  destroyed  the  lives  of  our  people. 

He  is  at  this  time  transporting  large  armies  of  foreign 
mercenaries  to  compleat  the  works  of  death,  desolation  and 
tyranny,  already  begun  with  circumstances  of  Cruelty  & 
perfidy  scarcely  paralleled  in  the  most  barbarous  ages,  and 
totally  unworthy  the  Head  of  a  civilized  nation. 

He  has  constrained  our  fellow  Citizens  taken  Captive  on 
the  high  Seas  to  bear  Arms  against  their  Country,  to  be- 
come the  executioners  of  their  friends  and  Brethren,  or 
to  fall  themselves  by  their  Hands. 

He  has  excited  domestic  insurrections  amongst  us,  and 
has  endeavoured  to  bring  on  the  inhabitants  of  our 
frontiers,  the  merciless  Indian  Savages,  whose  known  rule 
of  warfare,  is  an  undistinguished  destruction  of  all  ages, 
sexes  and  conditions. 

In  every  stage  of  these  Oppressions  We  have  Petitioned 
for  Redress  in  the  most  humble  terms:  Our  repeated 
Petitions  have  been  answered  only  by  repeated  injury.  A 
Prince,  whose  character  is  thus  marked  by  every  act  which 
may  define  a  Tyrant,  is  unfit  to  be  the  ruler  of  a  free 
People. 

Nor  have  We  been  wanting  in  attention  to  our  Brittish 
brethren.  We  have  warned  them  from  time  to  time  of  at- 
tempts by  their  legislature  to  extend  an  unwarrantable 
jurisdiction  over  us.  Wc  have  reminded  them  of  the  cir- 
cumstances of  our  emigration  and  settlement  here.  We 
have  appealed  to  their  native  justice  and  magnanimity,  and 
we  have  conjured  them  by  the  ties  of  our  common  kindred 
to  disavow  these  usurpations,  which,  would  inevitably  inter- 


APPENDICES  357 

rupt  our  connections  and  correspondence.  They  too  have 
been  deaf  to  the  voice  of  justice  and  of  consanguinity. 
We  must,  therefore,  acquiesce  in  the  necessity,  which  de- 
nounces our  Separation,  and  hold  them,  as  we  hold  the 
rest  of  mankind,  Enemies  in  War,  in  Peace  Friends. 

We,  therefore,  the  Representatives  of  the  united  States 
of  America,  in  General  Congress,  Assembled,  appealing  to 
the  Supreme  Judge  of  the  world  for  the  rectitude  of  our 
intentions,  do,  in  the  Name,  and  by  Authority  of  the  good 
People  of  these  Colonies,  solemnly  publish  and  declare. 
That  these  United  Colonies  are,  and  of  Right  ought  to  be 
Free  and  Independent  States;  that  they  are  Absolved  from 
all  Allegiance  to  the  British  Crown,  and  that  all  political 
connection  between  them  and  the  State  of  Great  Britain, 
is  and  ought  to  be  totally  dissolved;  and  that  as  Free  and 
Independent  States,  they  have  full  Power  to  levy  War, 
conclude  Peace,  contract  Alliances,  establish  Commerce, 
and  to  do  all  other  Acts  and  Things  which  Independent 
States  may  of  right  do.  And  for  the  support  of  this 
Declaration,  with  a  firm  reliance  on  the  Protection  of 
Divine  Providence,  we  mutually  pledge  to  each  other  our 
Lives,  our  Fortunes  and  our  sacred  Honor. 

John  Hancock. 

New  Hampshire  —  Josiah  Bartlett,  Wm.  Whipple, 
Matthew  Thornton. 

Massachusetts  Bay  —  Saml.  Adams,  John  Adams,  Robt. 
Treat  Paine,  Elbridge  Gerry. 

Rhode  Island  —  Step.  Hopkins,  William  Ellery. 

Connecticut — Roger  Sherman,  Sam'el  Huntington, 
Wm.  Williams,  Oliver  Wolcott. 

New  York  —  Wm.  Floyd,  Phil.  Livingston,  Frans. 
Lewis,  Lewis  Morris. 

New  Jersey  —  Richd.  Stockton,  Jno.  Witherspoon, 
Fras.  Hopkinson,  John  Hart,  Abra.  Clark. 

Pennsylvania  —  Robt.  Morris,  Benjamin  Rush,  Benja. 


358  AMERICAN  DEMOCRACY 

Franklin,  John  Morton,  Geo.  Clymer,  Jas.  Smith, 
Geo.  Taylor,  James  Wilson,  Geo.  Ross. 

Delaware  —  CiESAR  Rodney,  Geo.  Read,  Tho.  M'Kean. 

Maryland  —  Samuel  Chase,  Wm.  Paca,  Thos.  Stone, 
Charles  Carroll  of  Carrollton. 

Virginia  —  George  Wythe,  Richard  Henry  Lee,  Th. 
Jefferson,  Benja.  Harrison,  Thos.  Nelson,  jr.,  Francis 
Lightfoot  Lee,  Carter  Braxton. 

North  Carolina  —  Wm.  Hooper,  Joseph  Hewes,  John 
Penn. 

South  Carolina  —  Edward  Rutledge,  Thos.  Heyward, 
Junr.,  Thomas  Lynch,  Junr.,  Arthur  Middleton. 

Georgia  —  Button  Gwinnett,  Lyman  Hall,  Geo. 
Walton. 


APPENDIX  IT 

CONSTITUTION  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES 
(1789) 

We  the  People  of  the  United  States,  in  Order  to  form  a 
more  perfect  Union,  establish  Justice,  insure  domestic 
Tranquility,  provide  for  the  common  defence,  promote 
the  general  Welfare,  and  secure  the  Blessings  of  Lib- 
ert}^ to  ourselves  and  our  Posterity,  do  ordain  and  es- 
tablish this  Constitution  for  the  United  States  of 
America. 

Article  I. 

Section    1. 

1.  All  legislative  Powers  herein  granted  shall  be  vested 
in  a  Congress  of  the  United  States,  which  shall  consist  of  a 
Senate  and  House  of  Representatives. 

Section    2. 

1.  The  House  of  Representatives  shall  be  composed  of 
Members  chosen  every  second  Year  by  the  People  of  the 
several  States,  and  the  Electors  in  each  State  shall  have 
the  Qualifications  requisite  for  Electors  of  the  most 
numerous  Branch  of  the  State  Legislature. 

2.  No  Person  shall  be  a  Representative  who  shall  not 
have  attained  to  the  Age  of  twenty-five  Years,  and  been 
seven  Years  a  Citizen  of  the  United  States,  and  who  shall 
not,  when  elected,  be  an  Inhabitant  of  that  State  in  which 
he  shall  be  chosen. 

3.  Representatives  and  direct  Taxes  shall  be  apportioned 
among  the  several  States  which  may  be  included  within  this 
Union,  according  to  their  respective  Numbers,  which  shall 
be  determined  by  adding  to  the  whole  Number  of  free 
Persons,  including  those  bound  to  Service  for  a  Term  of 
Years,  and  excluding  Indians  not  taxed,  three  fifths  of  all 

359 


360  AxMERICAN  DEMOCRACY 

other  Persons.  The  actual  Enumeration  shall  be  made 
within  three  Years  after  the  first  Meeting  of  the  Congress 
of  the  United  States,  and  within  every  subsequent  Term 
of  ten  Years,  in  such  Manner  as  they  shall  by  Law  direct. 
The  Number  of  Representatives  shall  not  exceed  one  for 
every  thirty  Thousand,  but  each  State  shall  have  at  Least 
one  Representative;  and  until  such  enumeration  shall  be 
made,  the  State  of  New  Hampshire  shall  be  entitled  to 
chuse  three,  Massachusetts  eight,  Rhode-Island  and  Provi- 
dence Plantations  one,  Connecticut  five,  New-York  six, 
New  Jersey  four,  Pennsylvania  eight,  Delaware  one,  Mary- 
land six,  Virginia  ten.  North  Carolina  five,  South  Carolina 
five,  and  Georgia  three. 

4.  When  vacancies  happen  in  the  Representation  from 
any  State,  the  Executive  Authority  thereof  shall  issue  Writs 
of  Election  to  fill  such  Vacancies. 

5.  The  House  of  Representatives  shall  chuse  their 
Speaker  and  other  Officers;  and  shall  have  the  sole  Power 
of  Impeachment. 

Section    3. 

1.  The  Senate  of  the  United  States  shall  be  composed  of 
two  Senators  from  each  State,  chosen  by  the  Legislature 
thereof,  for  six  Years;  and  each  Senator  shall  have  one 
Vote. 

2.  Immediately  after  they  shall  be  assembled  in  Conse- 
quence of  the  first  Election,  they  shall  be  divided  as  equally 
as  may  be  into  three  Classes.  The  Seats  of  the  Senators 
of  the  first  Class  shall  be  vacated  at  the  Expiration  of  the 
second  Year,  of  the  second  Class  at  the  Expiration  of  the 
fourth  Year,  and  of  the  third  Class  at  the  Expiration 
of  the  sixth  Year,  so  that  one  third  may  be  chosen  every 
second  Year;  and  if  Vacancies  happen  by  Resignation,  or 
otherwise,  during  the  Recess  of  the  Legislature  of  any 
State,  the  Executive  thereof  may  make  temporary  Appoint- 
ments until  the  next  Meeting  of  the  Legislature,  which 
shall  then  fill  such  Vacancies. 


APPENDICES  361 

3.  No  Person  shall  be  a  Senator  who  shall  not  have  at- 
tained to  the  Age  of  thirty  Years,  and  been  nine  Years 
a  Citizen  of  the  United  States,  and  who  shall  not,  when 
elected,  be  an  Inhabitant  of  that  State  for  which  he  shall 
be  chosen. 

4.  The  Vice  President  of  the  United  States  shall  be 
President  of  the  Senate,  but  shall  have  no  Vote,  unless  they 
be  equally  divided. 

5.  The  Senate  shall  chuse  their  other  Officers,  and  also 
a  President  pro  tempore,  in  the  Absence  of  the  Vice  Presi- 
dent, or  when  he  shall  exercise  the  Office  of  President  of 
the  United  States. 

6.  The  Senate  shall  have  the  sole  Power  to  try  all  Im- 
peachments. When  sitting  for  that  Purpose,  they  shall 
be  on  Oath  or  Affirmation.  When  the  President  of  the 
United  States  is  tried,  the  Chief  Justice  shall  preside: 
And  no  Person  shall  be  convicted  without  the  Concurrence 
of  two  thirds  of  the  Members  present. 

7.  Judgment  in  Cases  of  Impeachment  shall  not  extend 
further  than  to  removal  from  Office,  and  disqualification  to 
hold  and  enjoy  any  Office  of  honor,  Trust  or  Profit  under 
the  United  States:  but  the  Party  convicted  shall  neverthe- 
less be  liable  and  subject  to  Indictment,  Trial,  Judgment 
and  Punishment,  according  to  Law. 

Section    4. 

1.  The  Times,  Places  and  Manner  of  holding  Elections 
for  Senators  and  Representatives,  shall  be  prescribed  in 
each  State  by  the  Legislature  thereof;  but  the  Congress 
may  at  any  time  by  Law  make  or  alter  such  -Regulations, 
except  as  to  the  Places  of  chusing  Senators. 

2.  The  Congress  shall  assemble  at  least  once  in  every 
Year,  and  such  Meeting  shall  be  on  the  first  Monday  in 
December,  unless  they  shall  by  Law  appoint  a  different 
Day. 


362  AMERICAN  DEMOCRACY 

Section    5. 

1.  Each  House  shall  be  the  Judge  pi  the  Elections,  Re- 
turns and  Qualifications  of  its  own  Members,  and  a 
Majority  of  each  shall  constitute  a  Quorum  to  do  Business; 
but  a  smaller  Number  may  adjourn  from  day  to  day,  and 
may  be  authorized  to  compel  the  Attendance  of  absent 
Members,  in  such  Manner,  and  under  such  Penalties  as 
each  House  may  provide. 

2.  Each  House  may  determine  the  Rules  of  its  Proceed- 
ings, punish  its  Members  for  disorderly  Behavior,  and, 
with  the  Concurrence  of  two  thirds,  expel  a  Member. 

3.  Each  House  shall  keep  a  Journal  of  its  Proceedings, 
and  from  time  to  time  publish  the  same,  excepting  such 
Parts  as  may  in  their  Judgment  require  Secrecy;  and  the 
Yeas  and  Nays  of  the  Members  of  either  House  on  any 
question  shall,  at  the  Desire  of  one  fifth  of  those  present, 
be  entered  on  the  Journal. 

4.  Neither  House,  during  the  Session  of  Congress,  shall, 
without  the  Consent  of  the  other,  adjourn  for  more  than 
three  days,  nor  to  any  other  Place  than  that  in  which  the 
two  Houses  shall  be  sitting. 

Section    6. 

1.  The  Senators  and  Representatives  shall  receive  a 
Compensation  for  their  Services,  to  be  ascertained  by  Law, 
and  paid  out  of  the  Treasury  of  the  United  States.  They 
shall  in  all  Cases,  except  Treason,  Felony  and  Breach  of 
the  Peace,  be  privileged  from  Arrest  during  their  Attend- 
ance at  the  Session  of  their  respective  Houses,  and  in  go- 
ing to  and  returning  from  the  same;  and  for  any  Speech 
or  Debate  in  either  House,  they  shall  not  be  questioned 
in  any  other  Place. 

2.  No  Senator  or  Representative  shall,  during  the  time 
for  which  he  was  elected,  be  appointed  to  any  civil  Office 
under   the   Authority    of   the    United   States,   which   shall 


APPENDICES  363 

have  been  created,  or  the  Emoluments  whereof  shall  have 
been  encreased  during  such  time;  and  no  Person  holding 
any  Office  under  the  United  States,  shall  be  a  Member  of 
either  House  during  his  Continuance  in  Office. 

Section    7. 

1.  All  Bills  for  raising  Revenue  shall  originate  in  the 
House  of  Representatives;  but  the  Senate  may  propose  or 
concur  with  Amendments  as  on  other  Bills. 

2.  Every  Bill  which  shall  have  passed  the  House  of 
Representatives  and  the  Senate,  shall,  before  it  become  a 
Law,  be  presented  to  the  President  of  the  United  States; 
If  he  approve  he  shall  sign  it;  but  if  not  he  shall  return  it, 
with  his  Objections  to  that  House  in  which  it  shall  have 
originated,  who  shall  enter  the  Objections  at  large  on  their 
Journal,  and  proceed  to  reconsider  it.  If  after  such  Re- 
consideration two  thirds  of  that  House  shall  agree  to  pass 
the  Bill,  it  shall  be  sent,  together  with  the  Objections,  to 
the  other  House,  by  which  it  shall  likewise  be  reconsidered, 
and  if  approved  by  two  thirds  of  that  House,  it  shall  be- 
come a  Law.  But  in  all  such  Cases  the  Votes  of  both 
Houses  shall  be  determined  by  Yeas  and  Nays,  and  the 
Names  of  the  Persons  voting  for  and  against  the  Bill  shall 
be  entered  on  the  Journal  of  each  House  respectively. 
If  any  Bill  shall  not  be  returned  by  the  President  within 
ten  Days  (Sundays  excepted)  after  it  shall  have  been 
presented  to  him,  the  Same  shall  be  a  law,  in  like  Manner 
as  if  he  had  signed  it,  unless  the  Congress  by  their  Ad- 
journment prevent  its  Return,  in  which  Case  it  shall  not 
be  a  Law. 

3.  Every  Order,  Resolution,  or  Vote  to  which  the  Con- 
currence of  the  Senate  and  House  of  Representatives  may 
be  necessary  (except  on  a  question  of  Adjournment)  shall 
be  presented  to  the  President  of  the  United  States;  and 
before  the  Same  shall  take  Effect,  shall  be  approved  by 
him,  or  being  disapproved  by  him,  shall  be  repassed  by 


S6i  AxMERICAN  DEMOCRACY 

two  thirds  of  the  Senate  and  House  of  Representatives, 
according  to  the  Rules  and  Limitations  prescribed  in  the 
Case  of  a  bill. 

Section    8. 

The  Congress  shall  have  Power 

1.  To  lay  and  collect  Taxes,  Duties,  Imposts  and  Ex- 
cises, to  pay  the  Debts  and  provide  for  the  common  De- 
fence and  general  Welfare  of  the  United  States;  but  all 
Duties,  Imposts  and  Excises  shall  be  uniform  throughout 
the  United  States; 

2.  To  borrow  Money  on  the  Credit  of  the  United  States; 

3.  To  regulate  Commerce  with  foreign  Nations,  and 
among  the  several  States,  and  with  the  Indian  Tribes; 

4.  To  establish  an  uniform  Rule  of  Naturalization,  and 
uniform  Laws  on  the  subject  of  Bankruptcies  throughout 
the  United  States; 

5.  To  coin  Money,  regulate  the  Value  thereof,  and  of 
foreign  Coin,  and  fix  the  Standard  of  Weights  and 
Measures ; 

6.  To  provide  for  the  Punishment  of  counterfeiting  the 
Securities  and  current  Coin  of  the  United  States; 

7.  To  establish  Post  Offices  and  post  Roads; 

8.  To  promote  the  Progress  of  Science  and  useful  Arts, 
by  securing  for  limited  Times  to  Authors  and  Inventors 
the  exclusive  Right  to  their  respective  Writings  and  Dis- 
coveries ; 

9.  To  constitute  Tribunals  inferior  to  the  supreme 
Court; 

10.  To  define  and  Punish  Piracies  and  Felonies  com- 
mitted on  the  high  Seas,  and  Offences  against  the  Law  of 
Nations ; 

11.  To  declare  War,  grant  Letters  of  Marque  and  Re- 
prisal, and  make  Rules  concerning  Captures  on  Land  and 
Water; 

12.  To  raise  and  support  Armies,  but  no  Appropriation 


APPENDICES  365 

of  Money  to  that  Use  shall  be  for  a  longer  Term  than  two 
Years ; 

13.  To  provide  and  maintain  a  Navy; 

14.  To  make  Rules  for  the  Government  and  Regulation 
of  the  land  and  naval  Forces; 

15.  To  provide  for  calling  forth  the  Militia  to  execute 
the  Laws  of  the  Union,  suppress  Insurrections  and  repel 
Invasions ; 

16.  To  provide  for  organizing,  arming  and  disciplining, 
the  Militia,  and  for  governing  such  Part  of  them  as  may 
be  employed  in  the  Service  of  the  United  States,  reserv- 
ing to  the  States  respectively,  the  Appointment  of  the 
Officers,  and  the  Authority  of  training  the  Militia  accord- 
ing to  the  discipline  prescribed  by  Congress; 

17.  To  exercise  exclusive  Legislation  in  all  Cases  whatso- 
ever, over  such  District  (not  exceeding  ten  Miles  square) 
as  may,  by  Cession  of  particular  States,  and  the  Acceptance 
of  Congress,  become  the  Seat  of  the  Government  of  the 
United  States,  and  to  exercise  like  Authority  over  all  Places 
purchased  by  the  Consent  of  the  Legislature  of  the  State 
in  which  the  Same  shall  be,  for  the  Erection  of  Forts, 
Magazines,  Arsenals,  dock- Yards,  and  other  needful  Build- 
ings ;  —  And 

18.  To  make  all  Laws  which  shall  be  necessary  and 
proper  for  carrying  into  Execution  the  foregoing  Powers, 
and  all  other  Powers  vested  by  this  Constitution  in  the 
Government  of  the  United  States,  or  in  any  Department 
or  Officer  thereof. 

Section    9.. 

1.  The  Migration  or  Importation  of  such  Persons  as  any 
of  the  States  now  existing  shall  think  proper  to  admit, 
shall  not  be  prohibited  by  the  Congress  prior  to  the  Year 
one  thousand  eight  hundred  and  eight,  but  a  Tax  or  Duty 
may  be  imposed  on  such  Importation,  not  exceeding  ten 
dollars  for  each  Person. 


366  AMERICAN  DEMOCRACY 

2.  The  Privilege  of  the  Writ  of  Habeas  Corpus  shall  not 
be  suspended^  unless  when  in  Cases  of  Rebellion  or  Inva- 
sion the  public  Safety  may  require  it. 

3.  No  Bill  of  Attainder  or  ex  post  facto  Law  shall  be 
passed. 

4.  No  Capitation,  or  other  direct,  Tax  shall  be  laid,  un- 
less in  Proportion  to  the  Census  or  Enumeration  herein  be- 
fore directed  to  be  taken. 

5.  No  Tax  or  Duty  shall  be  laid  on  Articles  exported 
from  any  State. 

6.  No  Preference-  shall  be  given  by  any  Regulation  of 
Commerce  or  Revenue  to  the  Ports  of  one  State  over  those 
of  another:  nor  shall  Vessels  bound  to,  or  from,  one  State, 
be  obliged  to  enter,  clear,  or  pay  Duties  in  another. 

7.  No  Money  shall  be  drawn  from  the  Treasury,  but  in 
Consequence  of  Appropriations  made  by  Law;  and  a 
regular  Statement  and  Account  of  the  Receipts  and  Ex- 
penditures of  all  public  Money  shall  be  published  from 
time  to  time. 

8.  No  Title  of  Nobility  shall  be  granted  by  the  United 
States:  And  no  Person  holding  any  Office  of  Profit  or 
Trust  under  them,  shall,  without  the  Consent  of  the  Con- 
gress, accept  of  any  present)  Emolument,  Office,  or  Title, 
of  any  kind  whatever,  from  any  King,  Prince,  or  foreign 
State. 

Section    10. 

1.  No  State  shall  enter  into  any  Treaty,  Alliance,  or 
Confederation;  grant  Letters  of  Marque  and  Reprisal;  coin 
Money;  emit  Bills  of  Credit;  make  any  Thing  but  gold 
and  silver  Coin  a  Tender  in  Payment  of  Debts;  pass 
any  Bill  of  Attainder,  ex  post  facto  Law,  or  Law  impair- 
ing the  Obligation  of  Contracts,  or  grant  any  Title  of 
Nobility. 

2.  No  State  shall,  without,  the  Consent  of  the  Congress, 
lay  any  Imposts  or  Duties  on  Imports  or  Exports,  except 


APPENDICES  367 

what  may  be  absolutely  necessary  for  executing  it's  in- 
spection Laws:  and  the  net  Produce  of  all  Duties  and 
Imposts,  laid  by  any  State  on  Imports  or  Exports,  shall 
be  for  the  Use  of  the  Treasury  of  the  United  States;  and 
all  such  Laws  shall  be  subject  to  the  Revision  and  Con- 
troul  of  the  Congress. 

3.  No  State  shall,  without  the  Consent  of  Congress,  lay 
any  Duty  of  Tonnage,  keep  Troops,  or  Ships  of  War  in 
time  of  Peace,  enter  into  any  Agreement  or  Compact  with 
another  State,  or  with  a  foreign  Power,  or  engage  in  War, 
unless  actually  invaded,  or  in  such  imminent  Danger  as 
will  not  admit  of  Delay. 

Article  II. 

Section    1. 

1.  The  executive  Power  shall  be  vested  in  a  President 
of  the  United  States  of  America.  He  shall  hold  his  Office 
during  the  Term  of  four  Years,  and,  together  with  the 
Vice  President,  chosen  for  the  same  Term,  be  elected,  as 
follows 

2.  Each  State  shall  appoint,  in  such  Manner  as  the 
Legislature  thereof  may  direct,  a  Number  of  Electors, 
equal  to  the  whole  Number  of  Senators  and  Representa- 
tives to  which  the  State  may  be  entitled  in  the  Congress: 
but  no  Senator  or  Representative,  or  Person  holding  an 
Office  of  Trust  or  Profit  under  the  United  States,  shall  be 
appointed  an  Elector. 

3.  The  electors  shall  meet  in  their  respective  States,  and 
vote  by  ballot  for  two  Persons,  of  whom  one  at  least  shall 
not  be  an  Inhabitant  of  the  same  State  with  themselves. 
And  they  shall  make  a  List  of  all  the  Persons  voted  for, 
and  of  the  Number  of  Votes  for  each;  which  List  they 
shall  sign  and  certify,  and  transmit  sealed  to  the  Seat 
of  the  Government  of  the  United  States,  directed  to  the 
President  of  the  Senate.  The  President  of  the  Senate 
shall,  in  the  Presence  of  the  Senate  and  House  of  Repre- 


368  AMERICAN  DEMOCRACY 

sentatives,  open  all  the  Certificates,  and  the  Votes  shall 
then  be  counted.  The  Person  having  the  greatest  Number 
of  Votes  shall  be  the  President,  if  such  Number  be  a 
Majority  of  the  whole  Number  of  Electors  appointed; 
and  if  there  be  more  than  one  who  have  such  Majority 
and  have  an  equal  Number  of  Votes,  then  the  House  of 
Representatives  shall  immediately  chuse  by  Ballot  one  of 
them  for  President;  and  if  no  person  have  a  Majority, 
then  from  the  five  highest  on  the  List  the  said  House  shall 
in  like  Manner  chuse  the  President.  But  in  chusing  the 
President,  the  Votes  shall  be  taken  by  States,  the  Repre- 
sentation from  each  State  having  one  Vote;  A  quorum  for 
this  Purpose  shall  consist  of  a  Member  or  Members  from 
two-thirds  of  the  States,  and  a  Majority  of  all  the  States 
shall  be  necessary  to  a  Choice.  In  every  Case,  after  the 
Choice  of  the  President,  the  person  having  the  greatest 
Number  of  Votes  of  the  Electors  shall  be  the  Vice  Presi- 
dent. But  if  there  should  remain  two  or  more  who  have 
equal  Votes,  the  Senate  shall  chuse  from  them  by  Ballot 
the  Vice-President.^ 

4.  The  Congress  may  determine  the  Time  of  chusing  the 
Electors,  and  the  Day  on  which  they  shall  give  their 
Votes;  which  Day  shall  be  the  same  throughout  the  United 
States. 

5.  No  person  except  a  natural  born  Citizen,  or  a  Citizen 
of  the  United  States,  at  the  time  of  the  Adoption  of  this 
Constitution,  shall  be  eligible  to  the  Office  of  President; 
neither  shall  any  Person  be  eligible  to  that  Office  who  shall 
not  have  attained  to  the  Age  of  thirty-five  Years,  and  been 
fourteen  Years  a   Resident  within  the  United  States. 

6.  In  Case  of  the  Removal  of  the  President  from  Office, 
or  of  his  Death,  Resignation,  or  Inability  to  discharge 
the  Powers  and  Duties  of  the  said  Office,  the  same  shall 
devolve  on  the  Vice  President,  and  the  Congress  may  by 
Law  provide  for  the  Case  of  Removal,  Death,  Resignation, 
or  Inability,  both  of  the  President  and  Vice  President,  de- 
claring what  Officer  shall  then  act  as  President,  and  such 


APPENDICES  369 

Officer   shall   act   accordingly,   until  thre   Disability  be   re- 
moved, or  a  President  shall  be  elected. 

7.  The  President  shall,  at  stated  Times,  receive  for  his 
Services,  a  Compensation,  which  shall  neither  be  encreased 
nor  diminished  during  the  Period  for  which  he  shall  have 
been  elected,  and  he  shall  not  receive  witliin  that  Period 
any  other  Emolument  from  the  United  States,  or  any  of 
them. 

8.  Before  he  enter  on  the  Execution  of  his  Office,  he 
shall  take  the  following  Oath  or  Affirmation: — "I  do 
solemnly  swear  (or  affirm)  that  I  will  faithfully  execute 
the  Office  of  President  of  the  United  States,  and  will  to 
the  best  of  my  Ability,  preserve,  protect  and  defend  the 
Constitution  of  the  United  States." 

Section    2. 

1.  The  President  shall  be  Commander  in  Chief  of  the 
Army  and  Navy  of  the  United  States,  and  of  the  Militia 
of  the  several  States,  when  called  into  the  actual  Service 
of  the  United  States;  he  may  require  the  Opinion,  in  writ- 
ing, of  the  principal  Officer  in  each  of  the  executive  De- 
partments, upon  any  Subject  relating  to  the  Duties  of  their 
respective  Offices,  and  he  shall  have  Power  to  grant  Re- 
prieves and  Pardons  for  Offences  against  the  United  States, 
except  in  Cases  of  Impeachment. 

2.  He  shall  have  Power,  by  and  with  the  Advice  and 
Consent  of  the  Senate,  to  make  Treaties,  provided  two 
thirds  of  the  Senators  present  concur;  and  he  shall  nomi- 
nate, and  by  and  with  the  Advice  and  Consent  of  the 
Senate,  shall  appoint  Ambassadors,  other  public  Ministers 
and  Consuls,  Judges  of  the  supreme  Court,  and  all  other 
Officers  of  the  United  States,  wliose  Appointments  are  not 
herein  otherwise  provided  for,  and  which  shall  be  estab- 
lished by  Law:  but  the  Congress  may  by  Law  vest  the 
Appointment  of  such  inferior  Officers,  as  they  think  proper, 
in  the  President  alone,  in  the  Courts  of  Law,  or  in  the 
Heads  of  Departments. 


^70  AMERICAN  DEMOCRACY 

3.  The  President  shall  have  Power  to  fill  up  all  Vacan- 
cies that  may  happen  during  the  Recess  of  the  Senate, 
by  granting  Commissions  which  shall  expire  at  the  End 
of  their  next  Session. 

Section    3. 

1.  He  shall  from  time  to  time  give  to 'the  Congress  In- 
formation of  the  State  of  the  Union,  and  recommend  to 
their  Consideration  such  Measures  as  he  shall  judge  neces- 
sary and  expedient ;  he  may,  on  extraordinary  Occasions, 
convene  both  Houses,  or  either  of  them,  and  in  Case  of  Dis- 
agreement between  them,  with  Respect  to  the  Time  of 
Adjournment,  he  may  adjourn  them  to  such  Time  as  he 
shall  think* proper;  he  shall  receive  Ambassadors  and  other 
public  Ministers;  he  shall  take  Care  that  the  Laws  be 
faithfully  executed,  and  shall  Commission  all  the  Officers 
of  the  United  States. 

Section    4. 

1.  The  President,  Vice  President  and  all  civil  Officers 
of  the  United  States,  shall  be  removed  from  Office  on  Im- 
peachment for,  and  Conviction  of.  Treason,  Bribery,  or 
other  high  Crimes  and  Misdemeanors. 

Article  III. 

Section    1. 

1.  The  judicial  Power  of  the  United  States,  shall  be 
vested  in  one  supreme  Court,  and  in  such  inferior  Courts 
as  the  Congress  may  from  time  to  time  ordain  and  estab- 
lish. The  Judges,  both  of  the  supreme  and  inferior  Courts, 
shall  hold  their  Offices  during  good  Behavior,  and  shall, 
at  stated  Times,  receive  for  their  Services,  a  Compensa- 
tion, which  shall  not  be  diminished  during  their  Continu- 
ance in  Office. 


APPENDICES  371 

Section.  2. 

1.  The  judicial  Power  shall  extend  to  all  Cases,  in  Law 
and  Equity,  arising  under  this  Constitution,  the  Laws  of 
the  United  States,  and  Treaties  made,  or  which  shall  be 
made,  under  their  Authority;  —  to  all  Cases  affecting  Am- 
bassadors, other  public  Ministers  and  Consuls ;  —  to  all 
Cases  of  admiralty  and  maritime  Jurisdiction;  —  to  Con- 
troversies to  which  the  United  States  shall  be  a  Party;  — 
to  Controversies  between  two  or  more  States ;  —  between 
a  State  and  Citizens  of  another  State;  —  between  Citizens 
of  different  States, —  between  Citizens  of  the  same  State 
claiming  Lands  under  Grants  of  different  States,  and  be- 
tween a  State,  or  the  Citizens  thereof,  and  foreign  States, 
Citizens  or  Subjects. 

2.  In  all  Cases  affecting  Ambassadors,  other  public 
Ministers  and  Consuls,  and  those  in  which  a  State  shall 
be  Party,  the  supreme  Court  shall  have  original  Juris- 
diction. In  all  the  other  Cases  before  mentioned,  the 
supreme  Court  shall  have  appellate  Jurisdiction,  both  as 
to  Law  and  Fact,  with  such  Exceptions,  and  under  such 
Regulations   as  the   Congress  shall  make. 

3.  The  Trial  of  all  Crimes,  except  in  Cases  of  Impeach- 
ment, shall  be  by  Jury;  and  such  Trial  shall  be  held  in 
the  State  where  the  said  Crimes  shall  have  been  com- 
mitted; but  when  not  committed  within  any  State,  the 
Trial  shall  be  at  such  Place  or  Places  as  the  Congress  may 
by  Law  have  directed. 

Section    3. 

1.  Treason  against  the  United  States,  shall  consist  only 
in  levying  War  against  them,  or  in  adhering  to  their 
Enemies,  giving  them  Aid  and  Comfort.  No  Person  shall 
be  convicted  of  Treason  unless  on  the  Testimony  of  two 
Witnesses  to  the  same  overt  Act,  or  on  Confession  in  open 
Court. 

2.  The  Congress  shall  have  Power  to  declare  the  Punish- 


372  AMERICAN  DEMOCRACY 

ment  of  Treason,  but  no  Attainder  of  Treason  shall  work 
Corruption  of  Blood,  or  Forfeiture  except  during  the  Life 
of  the  Person  attainted. 

Article  IV. 

Section    1. 

1.  Full  Faith  and  Credit  shall  be  given  in  each  State  to 
the  public  Acts,  Records,  and  judicial  Proceedings  of  every 
other  State.  And  the  Congress  may  by  general  Laws 
prescribe  the  Manner  in  which  such  Acts,  Records  and  Pro- 
ceedings shall  be  proved,  and  the  Effect  thereof. 

Section    2. 

1.  The  Citizerr  of  each  State  shall  be  entitled  to  all 
Privileges  and  Immunities  of  Citizens  in  the  several  States. 

2.  A  person  charged  in  any  State  with  Treason,  Felony, 
or  other  Crime,  who  shall  flee  from  Justice,  and  be  found 
in  another  State,  shall  on  Demand  of  the  executive 
Authority  of  the  State  from  which  he  fled,  be  delivered  up 
to  be  removed  to  the  State  having  Jurisdiction  of  the 
Crime. 

3.  No  Person  held  to  Service  or  Labour  in  one  State, 
under  the  Laws  thereof,  escaping  into  another,  shall,  in 
Consequence  of  any  Law  or  Regulation  therein,  be  dis- 
charged from  such  Service  or  Labour,  but  shall  be  delivered 
up  on  Claim  of  the  Party  to  whom  such  Service  or  Labour 
may  be  due. 

Section    3. 

1.  New  States  may  be  admitted  by  the  Congress  into 
this  Union;  but  no  new  State  shall  be  formed  or  erected 
within  the  Jurisdiction  of  any  other  State;  nor  any  State 
be  formed  by  the  Junction  of  two  or  more  States,  or  Parts 
of  States,  without  the  Consent  of  the  Legislatures  of  the 
States  concerned  as  well  as  of  tlie  Congress. 

2.  The   Congress   shall   have   Power   to   dispose   of   and 


APPENDICES  373 

make  all  needful  Rules  and  Regulations  respecting  the 
Territory  or  other  Property  belonging  to  the  United  States; 
and  nothing  in  this  Constitution  shall  be  so  construed  as 
to  Prejudice  any  Claims  of  the  United  States,  or  of  any 
particular   State. 

Section    4. 

1.  The  United  States  shall  guarantee  to  every  State  in 
this  Union  a  Republican  Form  of  Government,  and  shall 
protect  each  of  them  against  Invasion;  and  on  Application 
of  the  Legislature,  or  of  the  Executive  (when  the  Legis- 
lature cannot  be  convened)  against  domestic  Violence. 

Article  V. 

1.  The  Congress,  whenever  two  thirds  of  both  Houses 
shall  deem  it  necessary,  shall  propose  Amendments  to  this 
Constitution,  or,  on  the  Application  of  the  Legislatures  of 
two  thirds  of  the  several  States,  shall  call  a  Convention 
for  proposing  Amendments,  which,  in  either  Case,  shall  be 
valid  to  all  Intents  and  Purposes,  as  Part  of  this  Constitu- 
tion, when  ratified  by  the  Legislatures  of  three  fourths 
of  the  several  States,  or  by  Conventions  in  three  fourths 
thereof,  as  the  one  or  the  other  Mode  of  Ratification  may 
be  proposed  by  the  Congress;  Provided  that  no  Amend- 
ment which  may  be  made  prior  to  the  Year  One  thousand 
eight  hundred  and  eight  shall  in  any  Manner  affect  the 
first  and  fourth  Clauses  in  the  Ninth  Section  of  the  first 
Article;  and  that  no  State,  without  its  Consent,  shall  be 
deprived  of  its  equal  Suffrage  in  the  Senate. 

Article  VI. 

1.  All  Debts  contracted  and  Engagements  entered  into, 
before  the  Adoption  of  this  Constitution,  shall  be  as  valid 
against  the  United  States  under  this  Constitution  as  under 
the  Confederation. 

2.  This  Constitution,  and  the  Laws  of  the  United  States 


374  AMERICAN  DEMOCRACY 

which  shall  be  made  in  Pursuance  thereof;  and  all  Treaties 
made,  or  which  shall  be  made,  under  the  Authority  of  the 
United  States,  shall  be  the  supreme  Law  of  the  Land; 
and  the  Judges  in  every  State  shall  be  bound  thereby,  any 
Thing  in  the  Constitution  or  Laws  of  any  State  to  the  Con- 
trary notwithstanding. 

3.  The  Senators  and  Representatives  before  mentioned, 
and  the  Members  of  the  several  State  Legislatures,  and 
all  executive  and  judicial  Officers,  both  of  the  United 
States  and  of  the  several  States,  shall  be  bound  by  Oath 
or  Affirmation,  to  support  this  Constitution ;  but  no  religious 
Test  shall  ever  be  required  as  a  Qualification  to  any  Office 
or  public  Trust  under  the  United  States. 

Article  VII. 

1.  The  Ratification  of  the  Conventions  of  nine  States, 
shall  be  sufficient  for  the  Establishment  of  this  Constitu- 
tion between  the  States  so  ratifying  the  Same. 

Done  in  Convention  by  the  Unanimous  Consent  of  the 
States  present  the  Seventeenth  Day  of  September  in 
the  Year  of  our  Lord  one  thousand  seven  hundred  and 
Eighty  seven  and  of  the  Independence  of  the  United 
States  of  America  the  Twelfth.  In  Witness  'thereof 
We  have  hereunto  subscribed  our  Names, 

G°:  WASHINGTON  — 

Presidt,  and  Deputy  from  Virginia^ 


ARTICLES  IN  ADDITION  TO,  AND  AMEND- 
MENT OF,  THE  CONSTITUTION. 

Article  I.  (1791) 

Congress  shall  make  no  law  respecting  an  establishment 
of  religion,  or  prohibiting  tlie  free  exercise  thereof;  or 
abridging  the  freedom  of  speech,  or  of  the  press;  or  the 
right  of  the  people  peaceably  to  assemble,  and  to  petition 
the  Government  for  a  redress  of  grievances. 

Article  II.  (1791) 

A  well  regulated  Militia,  being  necessary  to  the  security 
of  a  free  State,  the  right  of  the  people  to  keep  and  bear 
Arms,  shall  not  be  infringed. 

Article  III.  (1791) 

No  Soldier  shall,  in  time  of  peace  be  quartered  in  any 
house,  without  the  consent  of  the  Owner,  nor  in  time  of 
war,  but  in  a  manner  to  be  prescribed  by  law. 

Article  IV.  (1791) 

The  right  of  the  people  to  be  secure  in  their  persons, 
houses,  papers,  and  effects,  against  unreasonable  searches 
and  seizures,  shall  not  be  violated,  and  no  Warrants  shall 
issue,  but  upon  probable  cause,  supported  by  Oath  or 
affirmation,  and  particularly  describing  the  place  to  be 
searched,  and  the  persons  or  things  to  be  seized. 

Article  V.  (1791) 

No  person  shall  be  held  to  answer  for  a  capital,  or  other- 
wise infamous  crime,  unless  on  a  presentment  or  indictment 
of  a  Grand  Jury,  except  in  cases  arising  in  the  land  or 

375 


376  AMERICAN  DEMOCRACY 

naval  forces,  or  in  the  Militia,  when  in  actual  service  in 
time  of  War  or  in  public  danger;  nor  shall  any  person 
be  subject  for  the  same  offence  to  be  twice  put  in  jeopardy 
of  life  or  limb;  nor  shall  be  compelled  in  any  Criminal 
Case  to  be  a  witness  against  himself,  nor  be  deprived  of 
life,  liberty,  or  property,  without  due  process  of  law;  nor 
shall  private  property  be  taken  for  public  use,  without 
just  compensation. 

Article  VI.  (1791) 

In  all  criminal  prosecutions,  the  accused  shall  enjoy  the 
right  to  a  speedy  and  public  trial,  by  an  impartial  jury  of 
the  State  and  district  M'herein  the  crime  shall  have  been 
committed,  which  district  shall  have  been  previously  ascer- 
tained by  law,  and  to  be  informed  of  the  nature  and  cause 
of  the  accusation;  to  be  confronted  with  the  witnesses 
against  him;  to  have  compulsory  process  for  obtaining 
Witnesses  in  his  favor,  and  to  have  the  Assistance  of  Coun- 
sel for  his  defence. 

Article  VII.  (1791) 

In  suits  at  common  law,  where  the  value  in  controversy 
shall  exceed  twenty  dollars,  the  right  of  trial  by  jury  shall 
be  preserved,  and  no  fact  tried  by  a  jury  shall  be  other- 
wise re-examined  in  any  Court  of  the  United  States,  than 
according  to  the  rules  of  the  <;ommon  law. 

Article  VIII.   (1791) 

Excessive  bail  shall  not  be  required,  nor  excessive  fines 
imposed,  nor  cruel  and  unusual  punishments  inflicted. 

Article  IX.  (1791) 

The  enumeration  in  the  Constitution,  of  certain  rights, 
shall  not  be  construed  to  deny  or  disparage  others  retained 
by  the  people. 


APPENDICES  877 

Article  X.  (1791) 

The  powers  not  delegated  to  the  United  States  by  the 
Constitution,  nor  prohibited  by  it  to  the  States,  are  re- 
served to  the  States  respectively,  or  to  the  people/ 

Article  XI.  (1798) 

The  Judicial  power  of  the  United  States  shall  not  be 
construed  to  extend  to  any  suit  in  law  or  equity,  com- 
menced or  prosecuted  against  one  of  the  United  States  by 
Citizens  of  another  State,  or  by  Citizens  or  Subjects  of 
any  Foreign  State.- 

Article  XII.  (1804) 

The  Electors  shall  meet  in  their  respective  states,  and 
vote  by  ballot  for  President  and  Vice-President,  one  of 
whom,  at  least,  shall  not  be  an  inhabitant  of  the  same 
state  with  themselves ;  they  shall  name  in  their  ballots  the 
person  voted  for  as  President,  and  in  distinct  ballots  the 
person  voted  for  as  Vice-President,  and  they  shall  make 
distinct  lists  of  all  persons  voted  for  as  President,  and  of 
all  persons  voted  for  as  Vice-President,  and  of  the  number 
of  votes  for  each,  whicli  lists  they  shall  sign  and  certify, 
and  transmit  sealed  to  the  seat  of  the  government  of  the 
United  States,  directed  to  the  President  of  the  Senate;  — 
The  President  of  the  Senate  shall,  in  presence  of  the  Senate 
and  House  of  Representatives,  open  all  the  certificates  and 
the  votes  shall  then  be  counted;  —  Tiie  person  having  the 
greatest  number  of  votes  for  President,  shall  be  the  Presi- 
dent, if  such  number  be  a  majority  of  the  whole  number  of 
Electors  appointed;  and  if  no  person  have  such  majority, 
then  from  the  persons  having  the  highest  number  not  ex- 
ceeding three  on  the  list  of  those  voted  for  as  President,  the 
House  of  Representatives  shall  choose  immediately,  by  bal- 
lot, the  President.  But  in  choosing  the  President,  the  votes 
shall  be  taken  by  states,  the  representation  from  each  state 
having  one  vote;  a  quorum  for  this  purpose  shall  consist  of 


878  AMERICAN  DEMOCRACY 

a  member  or  members  from  two-thirds  of  the  states,  and  a 
majority  of  all  the  states  shall  be  necessary  to  a  choice. 
And  if  the  House  of  Representatives  shall  not  choose  a 
President  whenever  the  right  of  choice  shall  devolve  upon 
them,  before  the  fourth  day  of  March  next  following,  then 
the  Vice-President  shall  act  as  President,  as  in  the  case  of 
tlie  death  or  other  constitutional  disability  of  the  President. 
The  person  having  the  greatest  number  of  votes  as  Vice- 
President,  shall  be  the  Vice-President,  if  such  number  be 
a  majority  of  the  whole  number  of  Electors  appointed,  and 
if  no  person  have  a  majority,  then  from  the  two  highest 
numbers  on  the  list,  the  Senate  shall  choose  tlie  Vice-Presi- 
dent; a  quorum  for  the  purpose  shall  consist  of  two-thirds 
of  the  whole  number  of  Senators,  and  a  majority  of  the 
whole  number  shall  be  necessary  to  a  choice.  But  no  per- 
son constitutionally  ineligible  to  the  office  of  President  shall 
be  eligible  to  that  of  Vice-President  of  the  United  States.^ 

Article  XIII.  (1865) 

Section   1. 

Neither  slavery  nor  involuntary  servitude,  except  as  a 
punishment  for  crime  whereof  the  party  shall  have  been 
duly  convicted,  shall  exist  within  the  United  States,  or 
any  place  subject  to  their  jurisdiction. 

Section  2. 

Congress  shall  have  power  to  enforce  this  article  by  ap- 
propriate legislation.^ 

Article  XIV.  (1868) 

Section   1. 

All  persons  born  or  naturalized  in  the  United  States, 
and  subject  to  the  jurisdiction  thereof,  are  citizens  of  the 
United  States  and  of  the  State  wherein  they  reside.     No 


APPENDICES  379 

State  shall  make  or  enforce  any  law  which  shall  abridge 
the  privileges  or  immunities  of  citizens  of  the  United  States ; 
nor  shall  any  State  deprive  any  person  of  life,  liberty,  or 
property,  without  due  process  of  law;  nor  deny  to  any 
person  within  its  jurisdiction  the  equal  protection  of  the 
laws. 

Section  2. 

Representatives  shall  be  apportioned  among  the  several 
States  according  to  their  respective  numbers,  counting  the 
whole  number  of  persons  in  each  state,  excluding  Indians 
not  taxed.  But  when  the  right  to  vote  at  any  election  for 
the  choice  of  electors*  for  President  and  Vice-President  of 
the  United  States,  Representatives  in  Congress,  the  Execu- 
tive and  Judicial  officers  of  a  State,  or  the  members  of  the 
Legislature  thereof,  is  denied  to  any  of  the  male  inhabi- 
tants of  such  State,  being  twenty-one  years  of  age,  and 
citizens  of  the  United  States,  or  in  any  way  abridged, 
except  for  participation  in  rebellion,  or  other  crime,  the 
basis  of  representation  therein  shall  be  reduced  in  the  pro- 
portion which  the  number  of  such  male  citizens  shall  bear 
to  the  whole  number  of  male  citizens  twenty-one  years  of 
age  in  such  State. 

Section  3. 

No  person  shall  be  a  Senator  or  Representative  in  Con- 
gress, or  elector  of  President  and  Vice-President,  or  hold 
any  office,  civil  or  military,  under  the  United  States,  or 
under  any  State,who,  having  previously  taken  an  oath,  as 
a  member  of  Congress,  or  as  an  officer  of  the  United  States, 
or  as  a  member  of  any  State  legislature,  or  as  an  execu- 
tive or  judicial  officer  of  any  State,  to  support  the  Consti- 
tution of  the  United  States,  shall  have  engaged  in  insur- 
rection or  rebellion  against  the  same,  or  given  aid  or  com- 
fort to  the  enemies  thereof.  But  Congress  may  by  a  vote 
of  two-thirds  of  each  House,  remove  such  disability. 


380  AMERICAN  DEMOCRACY 


Section  4. 

The  validity  of  the  public  debt  of  the  United  States, 
authorized  by  law,  including  debts  incurred  for  payment  of 
pensions  and  bounties  for  services  in  suppressing  insurrec- 
tion or  rebellion,  shall  not  be  questioned.  But  neither 
the  United  States  nor  any  State  sliall  assume  or  pay  any 
debt  or  obligation  incurred  in  aid  of  insurrection  or  rebel- 
lion against  the  United  States,  or  any  claim  for  the  loss  or 
emancipation  of  any  slave;  but  all  such  debts,  obligations 
and  claims  shall  be  held  illegal  and  void. 

Section   5. 

The  Congress  shall  have  power  to  enforce,  by  appropri- 
ate legislation,  the  provisions  of  this  article.^ 

Article  XV.  (1870) 

Section    1. 
The  right  of  citizens  of  the  United  States  to  vote  shall 
not  be  denied  or  abridged  by  the  United  States  or  by  any 
State  on  account  of  race,  color,  or  previous  condition  of 
servitude.  / 

Section  2.  ^^ 

The  Congress  shall  have  power  to  enforce  this  article 
by  appropriate  legislation.- 

Article  XVI.  (1913) 

Section    1. 
The  Congress  shall  have  power  to  lay  and  collect  taxes 
on  incomes,  from  whatever  source  derived,  without  appor- 
tionment among  the  several  States,  and  without  regard  to 
any  census  or  enumeration.^ 


APPENDICES  381 


Article  XVII.  (1913) 

Section   1. 

The  Senate  of  the  United  States  shall  be  composed  of 
two  Senators  from  each  State,  elected  by  the  people  thereof^ 
for  six  years;  and  each  Senator  shall  have  one  vote.  The 
electors  in  each  State  shall  have  the  qualifications  requisite 
for  electors  of  the  most  numerous  branch  of  the  State 
Legislatures. 

Section  2. 

When  vacancies  happen  in  the  representation  of  any 
State  in  the  Senate,  the  executive  authority  of  such  State 
shall  issue  writs  of  election  to  fill  such  vacancies:  Pro- 
vided, That  the  Legislature  of  any  State  may  empower  the 
executive  thereof  to  make  temporary  appointment  until  the 
})eople  fill  the  vacancies  by  elections  as  the  Legislature  may 
direct. 

Section  3. 

This  amendment  shall  not  be  so  construed  as  to  affect 
the  election  or  term  of  any  Senator  chosen  before  it  be- 
comes valid  as  part  of  the  Constitution.* 

Article  XVIII.  (1919) 

Section  1. 

After  one  year  from  the  ratification  of  this  article  the 
manufacture,  sale,  or  transportation  of  intoxicating  liquors 
within,  the  importation  thereof  into,  or  tiie  exportation 
thereof  from  the  United  States  and  all  territory  subject 
to  the  jurisdiction  thereof,  for  beverage  purposes,  is  hereby 
prohibited. 

Section  2. 

The  Congress  and  the  several  States  shall  have  concur- 
rent power  to  enforce  this  article  by  appropriate  legislation. 


382  AMERICAN  DEMOCRACY 

Section  3. 

This  article  shall  be  inoperative  unless  it  shall  have  been 
ratified  as  an  amendment  to  the  Constitution  by  the  Legis- 
lature of  the  several  States,  as  provided  by  the  Constitution, 
within  seven  years  from  date  of  the  submission  hereof  to 
the  States  by  the  Congress. 

Article  XIX.  (1920) 

Section  1. 

The  right  of  citizens  of  the  United  States  to  vote  shall 
not  be  denied  or  abridged  by  the  United  States  or  by  any 
State  on  account  of  sex. 

Section  2. 

Congress  shall  have  power,  by  appropriate  legislation,  to 
enforce  the  provisions  of  this  Article. 


INDEX 


Abgeorgnetenhaus,  House  of 
Representatives  of  Prussia, 
224 

Abolition  Movement,  138,  181 
(Whittier) 

Abridgement  of  Freedom  of 
speech  forbidden,  162 

Absolute  Majority,  tyranny  of, 
248 

Acclamation  of  King,  15 

Act  of  Union,  Ireland  1800,  44 

Adams,  John,  at  beginning  of 
American  Revolution,  66! 
on  conmiittee  for  Declara- 
tion of  Independence,  85; 
absent  from  Constitutional 
Convention,  100;  Jefferson 
his  vice-president,  118; 
Hamilton,  his  secretary  of 
treasury,  121;  on  political 
parties,  133;  Alien  and  Se- 
dition acts,  162;  on  speech 
by  James  Otis,  176;  on 
Isolation  of  United  States, 
281 

Adams,  John  Quincy,  165-167, 
"Tariff  of  abominations" 
to  defeat  him,  141;  Monroe 
Doctrine,  165;  fought  "  Gag 
rule",  166;  on  president's 
power  to  free  slaves,  167; 
Secretary  of  State  for  Mon- 
roe, 284-286;  opposed  joint 
declaration  with  England, 
286;  stand  in  dispute  with 
Russia,  286;  portrait  and 
note,  287 

Adams,  Samuel,  beginning:  of 
Revolutions,  66;  Committees 

383 


of  Correspondence,  67;  ab- 
sent from  Constitutional 
Convention,  100;  Ratifica- 
tion of  Constitution,  110, 
155;  belief  in  Common  Peo- 
ple, 159 

Addams,  Jane,  influence  as  a 
citizen,  349 

Adjustment  of  State  and  Fed- 
eral Government,  123 

Administrative  Law,  49 

Alabama  Claims,  297 

Alaska,  dispute  with  Russia,  284 

Albania,  264 

Albany  Plan  of  Union,  158 

Alfred,  King  of  England,  17 

Algeria,  under  French  Sphere 
of  Influence,  270 

Allegiance,  in  a  Federal  Repub- 
lic, double,  114,  123,  301 

Alien  Act,  162 

Alien,  status  of  wife  of,  303 

Alliances,  European,  to  isolate 
France,  266 
The  two  great  alliances:    The 
Triple     Alliance,     and    the 
Triple  Entente,  266-7 

Alliances,  Permanent,  Wash- 
ington's -warning  against, 
156;  Jefferson's  and  John 
Adams's  views,  281;  entry 
into  Great  War,  328 

Alsace,  during  French  Revolu- 
tion, 201 

Alsace-Lorraine,  imperial  ter- 
ritory, 221;  part  of  indem- 
nity to  Germany  in  1870, 
252;  France's  desire  to  re- 
gain, 266*;  "La  Ravanche," 
277;  sore-spot  in  Europe, 


384 


INDEX 


Amendments  to  Constitution  of 
the  United  States,  Method, 
Article  V  of  Constitution, 
117;  first  ten  are  a  Bill  of 
Rights,  110;  111;  117-118; 
eleventh  through  nine- 
teenth, 118 

American,  The,  real  and  the 
false,  313;  of  today  and  to- 
morrow, 314;  his  outlook 
and  duties,  350;  necessity 
for  survey  of  himself,  351 

American    Citizenship,    300-315 

American  Constitution,  (see 
Constitution  of  the  United 
vStates)  359 

American  Experiment,  The,  un- 
molested by  foreign  intru- 
sion, 287 

American  Ideal,  The,  315;  323- 
324 

American  Ideals,  in  Farewell 
Address,  157;  316-334; 
bases,  318-323;  Our  common 
ideals,  325;  ideals  in  prac- 
tice, 326;  Failures,  329; 
ideals  of  world  peace,  332- 
333;  necessity  of  renewal  of 
foundation  principles,  333- 
334 

American  Literature,  its  future, 
quotation,  Pancoast,  174; 
187 

American  Principles,  confusion 
of,  338 

American  Revolution,  The,  Real 
Cause,  42,  268;  Friends  in 
England,  43;  Nationalities 
in  Colonies  64;  change  in 
ways  of  living,  64;  invent- 
iveness of  colonists,  64; 
stagnation  in- England,  65; 
French  and  Indian  War,  65; 
Stamp  Tax,  66;  Inter- 
ference    with     trade,     67; 


"Intolerable  Acts,  68-69; 
Quartering  of  hired  troops, 
67-68 

"  American  Scholar,  The ", 
"  Our  Intellectual  Declara- 
tion of  Independence,"  181 

"  American  System,  The," — 
Tariff    for    protection,    141 

American  Theory  of  State, 
threefold  aspect,  324 

"  Americanism,"  337 

Americanization  of  the  Amer- 
ican, necessity,  350 

Anarchism,  241-245;  disregard 
of  future,  241-242;  violent 
methods,  242;  contrast  with 
socialism,  242;  two  aspects 
—  syndicalism,  I.  W.  W. 
ism,  243 

Anglo-Saxon  Period  in  Eng- 
land, 13-19;  Angles,  Sax- 
ons, and  Jutes  come  to  Eng- 
land, 13;  A-S  kingdom.s 
unite,  (829)  16;  A-S  taxa- 
tion, 15;  17;  Christianity 
introduced,  13;  Government 
and  laws,  13-18;  Loyalty, 
18;  Local  government  re- 
mained, 18 

Anne,  Queen,  42;  190 

Anthony,  Susan  B,  XIX  amend- 
ment, 118;  influence  as  a 
citizen,  310 

Antietam,  Battle  of,  occasion 
for  Emancipation  Pro- 
clamation, 89 

Anti-Federalist  Party,  (see 
Political  Parties) 

"  Appeal  to  the  People,  An,"  in 
English  Government,  48 

Aquinas,  St.  Thomas,  on  sov- 
ereignty of  People,  319-320 

Arbitration  International,  Our 
Foreign  Policy,  279,  295- 
297;  The  Alabama  Claims, 


INDEX 


385 


297;  The  Hague  Confer- 
ences, 297;  Great  War 
Claims  of  Great  Britain, 
294;  An  American  Ideal, 
328;  Arbitration  Treaties, 
328 

Aristocratic  Family  system  of 
Virginia,  56 

Aristotle,  idea  of  government 
(quotation)  318 

Articles  of  Confederation,  Con- 
gress merely  advisory,  71; 
Constitutional  Convention 
called  to  amend,  72;  plan  to 
amend  discarded,  103;  rea- 
son for  failure  of  tariff  of 
1781,  181;  compare  with 
German  Confederation,  215 

Assumption  of  debts,  Hamil- 
ton's measure,  161 

Assumption  of  Power  in  War 
Time  by  Lincoln,  90 

Athens,  classes,  free  men  and 
slaves,  318 

Atlantic  Monthly,  182 

Attempts  at  Union  by  Colonies, 
62-63 

Augustine,  St.,  definition  of 
Government,  319 

Austria,  omitted-  from  Frank- 
fort Convention  216;  War 
with  Prussia,  1866,  cut  oif 
from  Germany,  220;  ex- 
pelled from  Germany  by 
Bismarck,  256 

Austria-Hungary,  from  1870  to 
1914,  255-258;  taxes,  256; 
nationalities  and  languages, 
256;  map  of  fragments,  257; 
Declaration  of  War  on  Ser- 
bia, 1914,  274 

Australia,  270 

Autocracy  of  Louis  XTV,  190; 
of  Emperor  of  Germany, 
224;   of   King   of   Prussia, 


224;  causes  in  Germany, 
225;  necessity  for  routine, 
231;  Bismarck's  policy,  226; 
Peter,  the  Great,  in  Russia, 
25S;  of  Roman  Emperors, 
319 


Baden,  South  German  State,  220 

Bakunin,  Mikhail,  revolutionary 
anarchist,  241-242 

Balance  of  Power,  set  up,  136; 
Turkey  in  Europe,  265; 
Crimean  War,  265 

Ballot  Act  (England),  46 

Balkans  and  Turkey,  264 

Baltimore,  Lord,  founder  of 
Maryland,  60 

Bancroft,  historian,  185 

Barbary  Pirates,  Jefferson,  292 

Bastile,  Fall  of,  196 

Bavaria,  South  German  State, 
220 

Belgium,  not  on  map  in  1815, 
205;  progress,  262 

Benevolences,  33,  36 

Berkeley,  Governor,  57 

Berlin  to  Bagdad  Railway,  272 

"Biglow   Papers,"   Lowell,   182 

Bill  of  Rights  (English)  Provi- 
sions, 41 

Bill  of  Rights  (American  State 
Constitutions),  71:  sug- 
gested "  Declaration  of 
Rights  of  Man  and  Citizen," 
in  French  Constitution  of 
1791,  198 

Bill  of  Rights  (Constitution  of 
the  United  States)  The  first 
10  amendments,  110 

Billeting  of  soldiers,  in  private 
houses,  Petition  of  Right, 
83;  in  amendment  II  to 
Constitution,  375 


386 


INDEX 


Bismarck,  219-229;  method  of 
uniting  Germany,  220;  Bun- 
desrat,  seat  of  imperial 
power,  222;  militarism,  226; 
yielded  to  Catholics  and  So- 
cialists, 233;  Franco-Prus- 
sian War,  251 ;  lack  of  colo- 
nial ambitions,  255;  Aus- 
tria, 256 

"Black  Death"  (England), 
helped  labor,  29 

"  Blithedale  Romance,  The ", 
Hawthorne,  183 

Bohemia,  in  1848,  210;  Czecho- 
slovakia, 92;  256;  350 

Bolivar,  Simon,  South  American 
leader,  283 

«  Bolshevik  ",  name-calling,  343 

Bolsheviki  —  in  Russia,  245 

Boroughs,  rotten,  pocket,  45,  209 

Bosnia  and  Hertzegovina,  258; 
under  Austria-Hungary, 
268;  Assassination  of  Crown 
Prince  of  Austria,  277 

Boston,  57 

Boundary,  Oregon,  284 

Bourbons,  Restoration,  204,  207 

Bourgeoisie,  in  France,  208; 
235;  name-calling,  343 

"  Bracebridge  Hall  ",  Irving,  179 

Bradford,  William,  Puritan 
Writer,  174 

Brandenburg,  Mark,  becomes 
Prussia,  214 

Brazil,  283 

Bremen,  city  state,  221 

British  Empire,  possessions,  270 

Bryan,  Secretary  of  State, 
"Identical  Note",  293;  ar- 
bitration treaties,  297 

Bryant,  W.  C,  American  author, 
178 

Buchanan's  administration,  tar- 
iff measure,  142 

Budget,  (English),  126 


Buenos  Ayres,  recognized,  284 

"  Builders,  The,"  Longfellow, 
180 

Builders  of  the  American  Ideal, 
178 

Bulgaria,  264 

Bundesrat,  seat  of  Imperial 
Power,  222,  223;  Sfee  Ger- 
man Government  and  Chap- 
ter XI 

Bureaucratic  System  in  Ger- 
many, 232 

Burgesses,   (English),  23 

Burgesses,  House  of,  in  Vir- 
ginia, 56 

Burke,  Edmund,  in  sympathy 
with  colonists,  43,  67;  on 
study  of  law  in  American 
colonies,  176;  "  On  Concilia- 
tion with  America",  176; 
Revulsion  against  French 
Revolution,  192-3 

Byrd,  of  Virginia,  colonial 
writer,  174 


Cabinet  Government,  English, 
begins,  42 ;  the  "  Govern- 
ment," 48;  "  An  appeal  to 
the  people,"  48-49;  Ameri- 
can, 121 

Cable,  George  W.,  Southern 
writer,  185 

Cahiers,  lists  of  grievances 
(France),  194 

California,  acquired,  288 

Calhoun,  John  C,  141 

Calling  names  as  a  political 
weapon,  246 

Cambridge,  Mass.,  57 

Canning,  George,  281,  286 

Capital,  Marx's  theory,  238, 
239 


INDEX 


387 


«  Capital,  Das,"  Bible  of  Social- 
ism, 236 

Carolinas,  the,  61 

Caroline  Islands  (German  pos- 
session) 271 

Carr,  Dabney,  Virginia  Com- 
mittee of  Correspondence, 
67 

Carthaginian  Freedom  of  Seas, 
291 

Catholics,  barred  from  Parlia- 
ment, 35;  persecuted,  36; 
restoration  of  religion,  40; 
disfranchised,  41 ;  allowed 
to  sit  in  Parliament,  44;  56; 
Maryland  and  religious  tol- 
eration, 60 

"Centennial  Cantata,"  Lanier, 
185;  quotation,  see  frontis- 
piece 

"  Chambered  Nautilus,  The," 
Holmes,  182 

Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer 
(English),  125 

Chancellor  of  Germany,  222-223 
{see  Chapter  X) 

Changes  in  United  States  Gov- 
ernment, 121-123 

Characteristics  of  Colonial 
Americans,  64 

Charlemagne,  213 

Charles  T,  struggle  with  Parlia- 
ment, 37-39;  57 

Charles  II,  63 

Charles  X  (of  France),  208 

Charter  Oak,  63 

Chartists,  45-46 

Checks  and  balances,  106 

Chili,  recognized,  284 

China,  Open  Door,  289,  297-298 

Chinese  Exclusion  from  United 
States,  303 

Church,  in  Saxon  England,  14; 
King  Alfred,  18;  Henry 
VIII,  Head  of  church,  34 


Citizen-American,  fourteenth 
and  fifteentli  amendments, 
118;  302-3;  the  good  citi- 
zen, 310;  negroes,  118 

Citizen's   Influence,  A,  310 

Citizen  King,  Louis  Philippe, 
208 

Citizenship  in  the  United  States, 
300-315 

City  States,  221 

Civil  Rights,  305-308 

Civil    Service    Reform,    122-123 

Class  Struggle,  237-238;  340; 
quotation,  249 

Classes  in  early  England,  13; 
after  Reform  Bills,  45;  in 
the  U.  S.,  69;  71;  after  the 
Revolution  of  1848,  21.0;  in 
Poland,  261 

Clay,  Henry,  Whigs,  134;  pro- 
tective tariff,  140;  compro- 
mise tariff,  142,  169;  South 
American  policy,  280;  medal 
awarded  (illustration), 

309 

Cleveland,  President,  135,  142 

Code  Napoleon,  204 

"Collectivism,"   240,   243 

Colombia,  recognized  by  United 
States,  284;  treaty  of  1921, 
289 

Colonial  Assemblies,  56;  lit- 
erature, 174 

Colonies,  Old  idea  of,  42 

Colonial  Possessions,  Map  of 
Africa,  269 

Commandments,  Ten,  basis  of 
Alfred's  law,  17;  basis  of 
our  laws,  326 

Common  Good,  The,  Maryland 
and  Western  lands,  72;  315; 
Plato,  318;  Virginia  Bill  of 
Rights,  321;  American 
Ideal,  323;  329;  Interna- 
tional, 334,  340 


388 


INDEX 


Common    Happiness,   Aristotle, 

318 
Common  ideals  of  Government, 

325 
Common  men,  quotations,  53;  in 

west,  75 
Common   welfare,   Preamble   to 

Constitution,     115;     Locke, 

321 
Commonwealth,     37;      Hooker, 

320 
Commons,  House  of,  (see  House 

of  Commons) 
Committee     of     Public     Safety 

(French  Revolution),  201 
Committee  of  Ways  and  Means, 

226 
Committees  of  Correspondence, 

67 
Communes  (in  France),  196;  of 

Paris,  201 
Communism,  234-235 
"  Communistic  Manifesto,"  236, 

244 
Community  of  Will,  346 
Compromise    of    1833,    142;    of 

1850,  170 
Compulsory  Votinpr,  211 
*'  Concord  Hymn,"  Emerson,  182 
Confederate  States  of  America, 

114 
Confederation  of  the  Rhine,  The, 

215 
Confederation,  New  England,  62 
Congress    (see   chapters  V,  VI 

and  Constitution) 
Congress,  Continental,  68 
Congress    of    Vienna,    204-207; 

Big  Four,  205;  division  of 

Spoils,  205;  Final  act,  206 
Congressional  Government,  "  by 

committees,"  124;  Bills  re- 
ferred, "  reported,  or  kill- 
ed," 125 
Connecticut,      Founding,      59 ; 


"  Fundamental  Orders  of  ", 
60;  Constitution  of,  65 
Conquest,  Norman,  19 

Constitution,  The,  Holmes's 
Poem,  182 

Constitution  (English),  estab- 
lished, 30,  Petition  of  Right, 
38 

Constitution  (of  the  United 
States)  (chapters  V,  VI, 
and  appendix)  Suffrage  re- 
strictions, 74;  compromises, 
104;  two  defects,  105; 
checks  and  balances,  106; 
separation  of  powers,  107; 
electors,  108;  refusal  to 
sign,  108;  12  states  signed; 
a  new  form  of  goverriment, 
109;  Preamble,  115;  su- 
preme law,  116;  changes  by 
interpretation,  119;  adop- 
tion, 109-111;  contrast  with 
making  of  German  Consti- 
tution, 220;  Oath  of  alle- 
giance, 304;  quotations,  322; 
not  sacred,  348 

Constitution  of  1791  (France) 
198;  of  1848,  208 

Constitutional  Convention,  95- 
111;  Madison's  secret  Jour- 
nal, 97;  men,  100;  diffi- 
culties, 101-107;  made  a  new 
form  of  government,  109 

Constitutions  "granted,"  I>ouis 
XVIII  to  France,  208; 
Frederick  William  IV  to 
Prussia,  217;  submitted  to 
Reichstag,  220;  Czar  to 
Russians,  261 

Constitutional  Growth  in  Eng- 
land, 24-31 ;  in  northern 
Europe,  262 

Cooper,  James  Fenimore,  179 

Court  of  High  Commission,  38 

Crimean  War,  265 


INDEX 


389 


Critical  Period,  69-71 

Cromwell,  39-40 

Croatia,  258 

Crown  Prince  Francis  Ferdi- 
nand of  Austria,  274 

Cuba,  attempted  annexation, 
138;  288;  328 

Curia  Regis,  16;  institutions 
descended  from,  20 

"Curse  of  the  Charter  Break- 
ers," 82 

Czecho-Slovakia,  246 

Czechs,  256 


Danegeld,  17;  28 

Danes  in  England,  16;  17 

Danton,  French  Revolution, 
200;  203 

Dartmouth  Case,  164 

Dayton  Jonathan,  110 

deMontfort,  Simon,  22;  23;  51 

de  facto  government,  recogni- 
tion. United  States  Foreign 
policy,  288 

Declaration  of  Independence, 
43;  issued,  69;  general  dis- 
cussion, 85-90;  Committee 
of  the  Whole,  85;  central 
thought,  86;  value  as  liter- 
ary document,  86,  159;  as 
state  paper,  86,  159;  signa- 
tures (fac-simile),  87;  dan- 
ger to  signers,  89;  founded 
on  Virginia  Bill  of  Rights, 
84,  321 ;  quotations,  322 

"Declaration  of  Independence, 
Our  Intellectual,"  181 

"  Declaration  of  Intention  "  to 
become  a  citizen,  303,  305, 
306 

Declaration  of  London,  293 

Declaration  of  Rights  of  man 
and   citizen    (French),    198 


Declaration  of  Rights  (Ameri- 
can), 68 

Declaration  of  Just  Principle, 
93 

Democracy,  in  England,  49-50; 
in  colonies,  56;  Massachu- 
setts town-meeting,  58; 
Hooker  and  Connecticut, 
59-60;  Sons  of  Liberty,  66; 
Constitution  of  Ohio,  74; 
free  land  labor  movement, 
education,  75;  145;  148; 
152;  Magna  Charta,  80; 
Constitution,  109;  pure 
democracy,  112-13;  initia- 
tive, referendum,  recall, 
129-130;  political  parties, 
136;  westward  movement, 
145-146;  Franklin,  159; 
state  constitutions,  167;  The 
Miracle  of  Democracy,  172- 
3;  free  discussion,  176; 
Ideal  (Walt  Whitman)  183; 
in  Norway,  205 ;  retarded  by 
French  Revolution,  203; 
207;  281;  in  France  in  1830, 
208;  lack  in  Germany,  215; 
220;  224;  232;  233;  in  Ger- 
.  man  towns,  232;  dangers 
of,  246;  England  (1870  to 
1914),  253;  in  Hungary, 
258;  Poland,  261;  Northern 
Europe,  262;  Switzerlanfl, 
262;  Contrast  Europe  with 
the  United  States,  279; 
'*  Republican  System,"  287; 
"  to  make  the  world  safe  for 
democracy  ",  298 ;  Economic 
situation,  308;  importance 
of  citizens,  310;  312;  313;  in 
Greece,  318;  in  Rome,  318- 
319;  in  church,  319;  An  un- 
conscious struggle,  320; 
American  ideal,  322;  Com- 


390 


INDEX 


mon  good,  334;  Mass  of 
People,  343-4 

Democratic  Party,  133-137; 
since  War  of  Secession,  133; 
Jefferson  founder,  160; 
platform,  1840,  134;  presi- 
dents since  1885,  135;  plat- 
form in  1912,  135 

Denmark,  at  Congress  of  Vien- 
na, 205;  Belgium,  209;  262 

Dickenson,  John,  100 

Dictatorship  in  Russia,  246 

Dignity  of  Man,  American 
Ideal,  325 

Diplomacy,  (secret)  England, 
49;  Congress  of  Vienna, 
205;  European  countries, 
267;  (open)  U.  S.  267;  Mon- 
roe Doctrine,  283-291;  Ar- 
bitration, 294-297;  The 
Open  Door,  297-298;  Bis- 
marck's, 227;  251 ;  The  Bal- 
ance of  Power,  264-266; 
The  Great  Alliances,  266- 
267 

Disease  Prevention,  331 

"Dissenters,"  36 

Divine  Right,  35-36;  William  I 
of  Germany,  224;  320 

Documentary  Sources  of  Ameri- 
can Rights,  311 

Documents,  of  Liberty,  77-94 

Drake,  Sir  Francis,  291 

Dry  Law  —  XVIII  amendment, 
118 

Duma,  The,  261 

"  Dumping  "  goods,  141 

Duties  of  American  Citizen, 
309-311 

Duty,  325 


E 


Early  Settlers  in  America,  54 
East  Indies,  271 


Economic  Code,  need  of,  307, 
308 

"  Economic  Determinism  ",  237 

Economic  Justice,  330 

Edicts,  French  laws  under  ab- 
solutism, 192 

Education  of  Negroes,  139 

Education  in  the  United  States, 
149-152;  Latin  schools, 
academies,  female  semin- 
aries, 150;  Northwest  Or- 
dinance and  public  school 
lands,  150,  160;  in  South; 
Jefferson's  plans,  150;  lack 
of  interest  for  50  years, 
151;  Public  High  School, 
151;  Michigan's  complete 
system,  151 ;  Increase  in 
number  of  schools,  152; 
Farewell  Address,  157; 
Franklin  on  franchise,  159; 
of  the  common  will,  331 ;  for 
patriotism  and  citizenship, 
346;  as  a  means  of  eradi- 
cating radicalism,  346;  pre- 
sent generation,  351 

Educational  test  for  suffrage, 
308 

Edward,  the  Confessor,  17 

Edward  I,  23 

Edward  VI,  34 

Egypt,  Sphere  of  Influence  of 
British  Empire,  270 

Election  of  King,  in  A-S  times, 
19;  in  Lancastrian  period, 
27 

Eliot,  Sir  John,  37;  51;  83 

Elizabeth,  Queen,  34-35;  Reli- 
gious Persecutions,  ar- 
bitrary courts,  industrial 
seized  Finland,  260 

Elizabeth,  Empress  of  Russia, 
revolution,    beggary,    34-35 

Elastic  Clause,  115-116;  method 


INDEX 


Ml 


of    amending    constitution, 
121 
Elba,  Napoleon's  escape,  206 
Electoral     College,    change    in 

functions,  123 
Emancipation  Proclamation,  89- 

92;  quotation,  90 
Emerson,  R.  W.,  181 
"  Ems     Dispatch,"     Bismarck's 

editing,  251 
Encouragement  of  Popular 
Government  abroad,  280- 
281 
England,  (Chapters  I,  II,  and 
IV,);  Constitution,  38; 
Government,  46-51 ;  the  cab- 
inet, 48 ;  discontent  in  colon- 
ial times,  64;  the  American 
Revolution,  65;  Financial 
system,  125-126;  at  Con- 
gress of  Vienna,  206;  from 
1870  to  1914,  255;  Land  sys- 
tem, 255;  colonial  policy  to 
white  colonies,  270;  sea- 
power,  272,  290;  rivalry 
with  Germany,  272;  sphere 
of  influence  in  Egypt,  270; 
in  China,  298 
Entente  Cordiale,  267 
Equality  before  law,  preserved 

by   Napoleon,   204 
Eritrea,  on  Red  Sea,  to  Italy,  270 
Error,      Jefferson,      quotation, 
234;  Lincoln  and  Jefferson 
on,  346 
Estates  General,  192-194 
Europe,  intervention  in  Ameri- 
can   affairs,    165;    checked, 
169;     size    compared    with 
U.  S.,  248;  Colonial  Ambi- 
tions,   268-272;    Possessions 
in  South  America,  283;  be- 
fore the  Great  War  (map) 
275;   since  the  Great  War, 
(map)   276 


"European    System",    founded 

on  force,  288 
"Evangeline",  Longfellow,  180 
"Evening  Wind,"  Bryant,  178 
"  Excellence  of  birth  and  educa- 
tion", Hamilton's  idea  for 
ruling  class,  71 
"  Excelsior ",  Longfellow,  180 
Exclusion  Act  of  1882,  303 


Fair  play,  American  Ideal,  327 
Family,  The,  American  ideal  of, 

325;  Marx's  idea,  238 
Farewell  Address,  Washington's 
176;    quotation,    279;    fixed 
our  policy  of  isolation,  282 
Federal  Diet  at  Frankfort,  215 
Federal  Republic,  114 
Federalist    Papers,    109;     160; 

162;  177 
Federalist  Party,  133 
Fifty-fourth     parallel,     trouble 

with  Russia,  284 
Financial     system     of     United 
States,  contrast  with  Eng- 
lish, 125,  127;  Hamilton,  161 
Finland,  given  to  Russia  at  Con- 
gress of  Vienna,  205 ;  seized, 
260;  350 
Final  Act  of  Congress  of  Vien- 
na, 206 
"  First  Papers  ",  for  naturaliza- 
tion, 303 
Fiske,  American  historian,  185 
Florida  Acquisition,  283-288 
Folk  Moot,  14 
Forced  loans,  33 
Foreign  Policy  of  United  States, 
initiated     by     Washington, 
156;     278-298;     encourage- 
ment of  republican  govern- 
ment abroad,  279-281;  neu- 


392 


INDEX 


trality,  279;  281-283;  in 
Great  War,  294;  freedom  of 
the  seas,  279,  291-295;  the 
Monroe  Doctrine,  279,  283- 
289;  291-295;  327-328;  in- 
ternational arbitration,  294, 
295-297;  the  open  door,  297- 
298;  Our  Future  Policy, 
298-299 

Foreign  Policy  of  European  na- 
tions, secret  diplomacy,  Ger- 
many, 224;  England,  49, 
267;  France,  267;  Italy,  267 

"Forest  Hymn,  The,"  Bryant, 
178 

Fox,  English  statesman,  43,  67 

France,  Chapter  X,  188-211; 
syndicalism,  243;  T  iple 
Entente,  267;  Colonial  Pos- 
sessions, 268-270,  289 ;  dread 
of  German  military  power, 
272;  gained  Haiti,  Louisi- 
ana, 282 ;  Morocco,  298 

Francis  Ferdinand,  crown 
Prince  of  Austria,  277 

Francis  Joseph,  Ruler  of  Aus- 
tria-Hungary, 256 

Frankfort  Convention,  211,  216, 
219;  Carl  Schurz,  280 

Franco-Prussia  War,  United 
Germany,  221;  250-253; 
Ems  Dispatch,  251 

Frederick  the  Great,  214 

Frederick  III,  German  Em- 
Frederick  William  IV,  216-217 
peror,  255 

"  Free  Contract,"  242 

Free  land,  146 

Free  Soil  Party,  134 

"Free  Ships  make  free  goods," 
Holland     declaration,     301 

Freedom  of  the  Seas,  291-295; 
American  ideal,  333 

Freedom  of  speech,  press,  and 
assembly,  301 


Freeman,  E.  A.  English  his- 
torian, quotations,  11,  32 

French  and  Indian  War,  63 

French  Revolution,  quotation 
from  Daniel  Webster,  188; 
188-204;  causes,  188-190; 
conditions  in  France,  190; 
village  priests  support  it, 
199;  monarchy  abolished, 
200;  committee  of  public 
safety,  Reign  of  Terror, 
201;  effect  of  excesses,  207; 
sympathisers  frightened, 
281 

Friendliness,  American  Ideal, 
327 

Franklin,  Benjamin,  158-159; 
committee  on  Declaration  of 
Independence,  85;  at  Con- 
stitutional Convention,  98; 
109 

Fundamental  Constitutions  for 
Carolinas,  61-62 

Fundamental  Orders  of  Con- 
necticut, 60 

Fugitive  Slave  Law,  138 


Gag  rule,  164 

Garland,  Hamlin,  185 

George  III,  42,  68,  86 

Georgia,  settlement  62,  Conti- 
nental Congress,  68 

Germany  (German  Empire) 
Chapter  XI;  Napoleon  and 
Germany,  214;  efforts  to 
unite,  211 ;  reason  for  study- 
ing, 212;  early  history,  213; 
Holy  Roman  Empire,  213; 
The  Confederation  of  the 
Rhine,  214-15;  movements 
toward  unity,  215;  Frank- 
fort   Convention,    216-219; 


INDEX 


393 


Bismarck,  Prussia,  and  the 
German  Empire,  219-221; 
The  German  Government, 
221-224;  Prussia,  224-226; 
Militarism,  226-229 ;  Univer- 
sities, 226-229;  German 
Theory  of  the  State,  229- 
232;  Causes  of  lack  of 
democracy,  231-2;  Demo- 
cratic Features,  232;  Social- 
ism, 240;  Franco-Prussian 
War,  250-253;  German  Em- 
pire, 253-255;  Balance  of 
power,  265;  Triple  Alliance, 
266;  Middle  Europe  Pro- 
ject, 272-3;  The  Great  War 
begins,  274;  Resentment  to- 
wards U.  S.,  294-5;  stand  on 
arbitration,  297 
Germanic  Confederation,  215 
German  Government,  221-224; 
Constitution,  making  con- 
trasted with  that  of  Consti- 
tution of  U.  S.,  221;  Com- 
position, 221 ;  Bundesrat 
seat  of  sovereignty,  222; 
Reichstag,  222-3;  suffrage 
and  representation,  223; 
chancellor,  223;  Emperor, 
223;  "Government  by  ex- 
perts," 223 
Gerry,  Elbridge,  100 
"Gettysburg  Address,"  17G 
Gibraltar,  270 
Gladstone,  William,  46,  51 
"  Glorious  "  Revolution  of  1688, 

37,41 
"  Good  laws  of  Edward,"  17,  30 
Government  of  England,    46-50 
Government      of     the     United 
States,    (see    chapter    VI,) 
contrast  with  that  of  Eng- 
land, 8,  25 ;  Theory  of  Gov- 
ernment,   {see    sovereignty 
of  the  people) 


Government  by  consent,  319- 
321 

Great  Britain,  (see  England) 

Great    Elector    Frederick,    214 

Great  Documents  of  Liberty, 
77-91;  Magna  Charta,  21-22; 
77-83;  Petition  of  Right, 
37;  83-4;  Declaration  of  In- 
dependence, 69 ;  84-89;  353. 
The  Constitution  of  the 
United  States,  89;  95;  359; 
The  Emancipation  Proc- 
lamation, 89-92 

Great  Powers  of  Europe,  265 

Great  War,  The,  Causes,  250; 
274;  277 

Greece,  211;  280;  city  stales,  3]_8 

Greenback  Party,  136 

Greene,  Nathaniel,  155 

Grey,  Lord,  293 

Guatemala,  284 

Guiana,  283 


H 


Habeas  Corpus,  Act  of,  40; 
personal    liberty,    306;    307 

Hague  Conferences,  297 

Haiti,  282 

Hamburg,  221 

Hamilton,  Alexander,  at  Consti- 
tutional Convention,  9*^-99; 
Defense  of  Constitution, 
108;  109;  111;  Federalist 
Leader,  132;  Tariff,  140; 
Financial  system,  156;  160- 
162;  Federalist  Papers,  109; 
177 

Hampton,  John,  38,  51 

Hancock  John,  64,  88 

Hapsburg,  213 

Hartford  Convention,  133,  159 

Harrison,  President,  134 

Harte,    Bret,    184 

Hawaiian  Islands,  289 


804; 


INDEX 


Hawkins,  English  seaman,  291 
Hawthorne,  Nathaniel,  183 
Hay,  John,  298 
Hayne  of  North  Carolina,  168 
Henry,    Patrick,    66-,    opposed 

Constitution,  100;  109;  155; 

163;  174;  336 
Henry  I,  20 
Henry  II,  Jury,  21 
Henry  III,  22 
Henry  IV,  24 

Henry  VII,  30;  32;  star  cham- 
ber, 33 
Henry  VIII,  34 
Herrenhaus,  224 
Hertzgovina,  258 
"Hiawatha,"    Longfellow,     180 
Historians,  American,  185 
Hobbes,  Thomas,  321 
Hohenzol'ern,  224 
Holland,  262;  271;  291-292 
Holmes,    Oliver    Wendell,    182 
"  Holy  Alliance,"  283 
Holy  Roman  Empire,  213 
Homestead  Law,  147 
Hong  Kong,  270 
Hooker,  Richard,  320-321 
Hooker,    Thomas,    Connecticut, 

59;  60 
House  of  Commons  beginning, 

48;  226 
House  of  Lords,  46;  48;  49 
House  of  Hapsburg,  255-256 
House    of    Representatives,    75 

(see  Chapters  V  and  VI) 
"  House    of   the    Seven   Gables, 

The,"  Hawthorne,  179 
Human  Rights,  198;  319;  321 
Hungary,  210;  256 
Hutchinson,  Anne,  60 


I 


"Ichabod,"  Whittier,  181 
Ideals  of  World  Peace,  332-333 


Ideals,  American  (see  Ameri- 
can Ideals) 

Identical  Note,  Bryan,  297 

Illiteracy,  331 

Impressment  of  Sailors,  292 

Inaugural  address,  Washing- 
ton's, 156;  Jackson's,  174 

India,  260,  270 

Indiana,  suffrage,  305 

Individual,  Marx,  239;  247;  248 

Individual  Freedom,  one  half  of 
American  Ideal,  323 

Initiative,  The,  129-130 

International,  The,  239-241 

International  Law,  Marshall, 
164;  prize  court,  293;  295; 
Arbitration,  295,  297 ;  Peace, 
328;  relations,  (of  U.  S.) 
Foreign  Policy,  278-299 

Interpretation  of  Constitution^ 
119-121,  172 

Internal  Improvements,  134;  166 

Intolerable  Acts,  67-68 

Inventiveness  of  American,  64- 
68 

"Invincible  Armada,  The,"  291 

Ireland,  Ulster  Planted,  36; 
Charles  I's  coercion,  38;  Act 
of  Union,  44;  Irish  Parlia- 
ment, 44;  representation, 
45;  American  outlook,  349 

Irish  Question,  255 

Irving,  Washington,  178-179 

Isolation,  278,  281-283;  J.  Q. 
Adams,  286;  Monroe  Doc- 
trine, 287;  in  World  War, 
298 

Italy,  united,  262;  colonial  am- 
bitions, 268;  in  Africa,  270; 
289 

I.  W.  W.,  243-245;  name  calling, 
343 


INDEX 


395 


K 


Jackson,  Andrew,  167-169;  Jack- 
sonian  Democracy,  75 ; 
Spoils  system,  122;  elected, 
141;  146;  second  inaugural, 
176 

Jackson,  Helen  Hunt,  185 

James  I  and  divine  right,  35; 
Virginia  begun,  36 ;  struggle 
with  parliament,  35-37;  star 
chamber,  34 ;  Ulster,  34 

James  II,  40-41 ;  closes  New 
York  assembly,  61 

Japanese-Russian  War,  267-268 

Jay,  John,  100 

Jefferson,  Thomas,  ancestor,  56; 
Declaration  of  Independ- 
ence, 84;  85;  88;  absent 
from  Constitutional  Con- 
vention, 100;  110;  believed 
U.  S.  would  be  a  nation  of 
small  land  owners,  132; 
Anti-federalist,  132-3;  ed- 
ucation, university  of  Vir- 
ginia, 150-151;  159-160;  in 
Washington's  cabinet,  161- 
2;  Louisiana  Purchase,  162; 
Kentucky  Resolutions,  163; 
Quotations,  234;  Isolation, 
281;  alliance  and  joint  de- 
claration with  England, 
282;  286;  Barbary  Pirates, 
292;  346 

Jerusalem,  attempt  at  commu- 
nism, 235 

Jews,  suffrage,  41;  allowed  to 
sit  in  Parliament,  44 

John,  King,  21;  320 

Journal  of  the  Constitution,  97 

Jufy,  Trial  by,  21;  29;  78;  93; 
117 


Kamerun,  271 

Kansas,  in  Republican  platform, 

1854,  134 
Kentucky  Resolutions,  163 
Kiel  Canal,  272;  295 
King's  Peace,  The,  16 
King,  Rufus,  99 
Kossuth,  280 


La  Vendee,  201 

Labor,  rise  of  common  people, 
28;  45;  Sons  of  Liberty,  66; 
slavery,  137;  as  a  political 
issue,  142;  147-149;  Help  in 
Revolution,  148;  Labor 
Union,  148;  Public  schools, 
U8;  Marx  on  labor,  238; 
Collectivism,  240 

"Ladder  of  St.  Augustine", 
Longfellow,  180 

Lafayette,  68,  196 

Land  system  in  France,  194,  253 

Land  system  in  England,  255 

Landtag,  219,  224-225 

Langton,  Stephen,  51,  82-83 

Lanier,  Sidney,  184-185,  Quota- 
tion, see  Frontispiece 

"  Last  Leaf,  The  ",  Holmes,  182 

Law,  Beginning  of  written  law, 
78;  knowledge  in  Colonies, 
102-103;  of  Revolutionary 
Writers,  176 

League  of  Nations,  the  quad- 
ruple alliance,  283;  a  just 
league,  331 

Lecky,  English  Historian,  67 

Lee,  Richard  Henry,  100,  109   . 

"Legitimacy",  204 

Liberty  Party,  134 

Leopold  .of  Coburg,  King  of 
Belgium,  209 


396 


INDEX 


Lexington,  69 

Liberals,  in  England,  43;  in 
Europe,  209 

Liberum  veto,  215;  261 

Lincoln,  Abraham,  171-172;  in- 
fluence, 310;  Quotation,  323; 
342;  346 

Literacy  Test  for  naturalization, 
303 

Livingston,  Robert,  85 

Local  government,  in  Saxon 
England,  18;  modern  Eng- 
land, 50 ;  in  Germany,  232 

Locke,  John,  61,  321 

London  Company,  36 

Longfellow,  Henry  W.,  quota- 
tion, 95;  180 

Londonderry,  36 

"  Loose  Construction  ",  161 

Lords,  House  of,  (see  House  of 
Lords) 

"  Lost  Occasion,  The  "  Whittier, 
181 

Louisiana  Purchase,  The,  145, 
160,  282 

Louis  XIV,  190-192 

Louis  XV,  192 

Louis  XVI,  192-194;  execution, 
200 

Louis  XVIII,  204,  208 

Louis  Philippe,  the  Citizen  King, 
208 

Lowell,  182;  quotations,  250,  335 

Loyalist  poetry  of  the  Revolu- 
tion, 177 

Lubeck,  221 

Lyons,  202 


M 


McKinley,  President,  135 
McKinley  Tariff,  142 
McMahon,  Marshall  of  France, 
251 


McMaster,  American  historian, 
183 

Magna  Charta,  22,  66,  78-83;  A 
treaty  of  peace.  No  new 
laws,  78;  Provisions,  78-79; 
61  articles,  79;  Barones 
electi,  80;  one  copy  in  Brit- 
ish museum,  80;  Publication, 
80;  Broken  and  renewed,  82- 
83;  clause  relating  to  just- 
ice, 307 

Madison,  James,  in  Constitu- 
tional Convention,  97;  se- 
cret journal,  97,  162;  char- 
acter, 99 ;  defense  of  Consti- 
tution, Federalist  Papers, 
109,  163,  177;  abuse,  109;  A 
Federalist,  133;  Kentucky 
Resolutions,  163,  167;  favor- 
ed joint  declaration,  286 

Madagascar,  270 

Magyars,  256,  258 

Majority  Rule,  statute  of  1429, 
27;  in  Germany,  227;  Maxi- 
mists  (Bolsheviki),  245; 
stand  of  extreme  socialists, 
248;  American  method,  322; 
Lincoln  on  an  unrestrained 
majority,  323;  good-will  of 
Americans,  339-341  (see 
Sovereignty  of  people  and 
Source  of  government) 

Malta,  270 

"Mare  Liberum"  (Freedom  of 
the  Seas),  291 

"  Margaret "  of  New  Orleans 
348 

Marie  Antoinette,  202 

Mark  Twain,   183 

Marriage,  Marx's  view,  238 

Marshall,  John,  help  in  inter- 
preting Constitution,  156; 
general  sketch,  163-164;  con- 
tribution   to    international 


INDEX 


397 


law,    164;    quotation,    322- 
323 

Maryland,    settlement,    38,    60; 
spirit  of  liberty  and  order,  ♦ 
60-61;     stand    on    western 
lands,  71 

Marx,  Karl,  236-241 ;  "  Das  Cap- 
ital," 236 ;  "  Communistic 
Manifesto,"  236 

Mason,  George,  at  Constitu- 
tional Convention,  100;  Vir- 
ginia state  Constitution, 
321;  Foundation  principles, 
333 

Mass  Rights,  239 

Massachusetts,  Founding,  38, 
57-60;  General  court,  58; 
schools,  58;  Roger  Williams, 
60;  Hooker  and  suffrage, 
65;  Committee  of  Corre- 
spondence, 67;  Ratification 
of  Constitution,  101 

Materialism,  340 

"  Materialistic  Conception  of 
History  ",  237 

Mayflower  Compact,  57 

Maximists,    245 

Message  on  the  state  of  the 
country,  128 

Metternich,  205 

Metz,  251 

Mexico,  284 

Mexican  War,  182,  329 

Michigan,  schools,  151 

Middle  Europe  project,  271 

Middle  West,  writers,  185 

Militarism,  Cromwell,  38;  Ger- 
man, 226-229;  hindrance  to 
democracy,  232 ;  Franco- 
Prussian  War,  250-253; 
French  army,  272;  Rivalry, 
272;  Monarchial  System, 
287;  Germany,  293 

Miller,  Joaquin,  185 

Minority  in  Hungary,  258 


Mobilization  of  armies  in  Great 
War,  274,  277 

Monarchial  System,  287 

Monopolies,  James   I,  36 

Monroe,  James,  administration, 
133,  164-165,  167 

Monroe  Doctrine,  Henry  Clay, 
169;  Foreign  policy,  279; 
283-291;  J.  Q.  Adams,  287- 
288;  two  aspects,  286;  an 
American  Ideal,  328 

Montenegro,  264 

Moot-court,  13 

"  Morituri  Salutamus  ",  Long- 
fellow, 181 

Moroccan  troubles,  289 

Morris,  Gouverneur,  Constitu- 
tional Convention,  99;  Com- 
mittee on  style,  108;  French 
Revolution,  201 

Morris*,  Robert,  100,  116 

Moscow,  260 

"  Mosses  from  an  Old  Manse  '*, 
Hawthorne,  183 

Motley,  American  historian,  185 

"  Mountain,  The  ",  201 

Municipal  Ownership,  in  Eng- 
land, 50 


N 


Name-calling  as  Political  Wea- 
pon, 343 

Napoleon,  after  French  Revolu- 
tion, 190;  made  ideals  of 
Revolution  permanent,  203; 
career  ended,  203;  Code 
Napoleon,  204 ;  Napoleon 
and  Germany,  214;  sells 
Louisiana  to  United  States, 
283 

Napoleon,  Louis  (Napoleon 
III),  210;  Franco-Prussian 
War,  221,  250-258;  The  Ems 


398 


INDEX 


Dispatch,   251;   Sedan  and 
defeat,  252 
National    Assembly    (France), 

194-197;  work  of,  196 
National   Assembly    (Germany, 

1848),  211 
National     Bank      (of     United 
States),    161;    disestablish- 
ment, 169;  attempts  to  re- 
establish, 166 
National  Workshops,  209 
Nationality,    Napoleon's    influ- 
ence, 203,  214;  disregarded 
by  the  Congress  of  Vienna, 
205,  206;  Marx's  idea,  239; 
in  Great  War,  262 
Nationalities  in  American  Col- 
onies, 64 
Naturalization    in    the    United 

States,  303 
Near  East,  The,  264 
"Necessity  is  a  tyrant's  plea," 

161 
Negro   question,    (see   slavery), 
Education,     139 ;      disfran- 
chisment   in    South,   139;   a 
present  problem,  331 
Neutrality,  of  U.  S.,  156;  of  Bel- 
gium,   274;    U.    S.    foreign 
policy,    282-283;    U.    S.    in 
World  war,  294 
New  Code  of  Ethics  in  Business, 

447 
New  England  Confederation,  62 
New  Harmony,  Indiana,  236 
New  Jersey  iPlan,  103 
New  Mexico,  286,  288 
New    Orleans,    Battle    of,    167; 

"Margaret,"  348 
«  New  Roof,  The  ",  Constitution, 

111 
New  York,  (state),  selfish  pol- 
icy, 61 ;  religious  toleration, 
61;    suffrage,    305;     (city) 
languages  in  1643,  61 


Newspapers,  342 

Newton,  Mass.,  65 

Nineteenth  Century,  summary 
of  events  in  Europe,  250 

Non-intervention  from  abroad, 
282;  with  others,  288 

Non- jurors,  44 

Non-partisan,   134 

Norris,  Frank,  author,  185 

North  German  Federation,  con- 
stitution, 50;  became  Ger- 
man Empire,  250;  Prussia, 
251,  252 

Northwest  Ordinance  of  1787, 
Education,  150;  statute  of 
religious   freedom,    160 

Norway,  205,  woman  suffrage, 
262 

Nullification,  Hartford  Conven- 
tion, 133;  South  Carolina, 
141,  142;  Kentucky  and  Vir- 
ginia Resolutions,  163; 
Jackson's  stand,  168 


"Oh  Captain,  my  Captain," 
Whitman,  184 

O'Connell,  Daniel,  44,  51 
O'Reilly,  John  Boyle,  quotations, 
53,"  153 

Oath  of  National  Assembly, 
France,  188,  196;  of  Alle- 
giance, 304;  of  Supremacy, 
33 

"  On  Conciliation  with  America," 
Burke,  176 

"  One  Big  Union,"  I.  W.  W.,  243 

Open  Door,  The,  279;  289;  297; 
299 

Open  Diplomacy,  267 ;  American 
Ideal,  333 

Oratory,   influence,   176 

Orders  in  Council,  29 


INDEX 


399 


Oregon,  disputes  on  boundary, 
284 

Original  jurisdiction  of  Su- 
pfeme   Court,    IKJ 

Otis,  James,  66^  155,  illustration, 
175,  177 

Owen,  Robert,  Utopian  social- 
ism, 236 


Page,  Thomas  Nelson,  185 

Panama  Canal,  acquisition,  286; 
control,  289;  international 
waterway,  295;  tolls,  328 

Pancoast,  H.  S.  quotation,  174 

Paper  money,  123 

"  Papers,  first,  final ",  304 

Parliament,  22-24;  source  of 
Law,  26;  Struggle  with 
King,  37-38;  struggle  with 
colonies,  63-69 

Paris,  196;  202;  252 

Party  Conventions,  108;  illus- 
tration, 222 

Party,  Political,  (see  Political 
Parties) 

Patriotism,  162;  Marx's  view, 
239;  Chapter  XVII 

"Paul  Revere's  Ride",  Long- 
fellow, 180 

Payment  of  members,  26;  45; 
not  in  German  constitution, 
220 

Peasants'  Revolt,  24 

People,  source  of  government. 
Constitution,  109,  Preamble, 
115;  318-323 

Permanent  alliances,  156,  282 

Peter  the  Great,  258,  260 

Petition  for  redress  of  Griev- 
ances, 25,  68,  86-87,  93 

Petition  of  Right,  37,  38,  64,  83, 
84 

Petrograd,  260 


Philadelphia,  68,  72 

Philosophy  of  government,  319- 
321 

Philippines,  289 

"  Pioneers,  oh  Pioneers  ",  Whit- 
man, 184 

Pitt,  William,  Lord  Chatham, 
43,  51,  67 

Pinckney,  Charles,  99 

Plato,  318,  323 

Pocket  boroughs,  43 

Poe,  Edgar  Allen,  178,  184 

Poland,  at  Congress  of  Vienna, 
205-206;  in  Austria-Hun- 
gary, 256;  Partition,  260- 
262 

Policy  American  Foreign  (see 
Foreign  Policy  of  United 
States) 

Political  Parties,  in  England, 
45;  in  United  States,  131- 
137;  Federalist,  133;  Anti- 
Federalist,  133;  Democratic, 
133-135;  Republican,  135; 
Small  parties,  136;  Tariff 
and  parties,  142 

Political  Rights,  308-309 

Polk's  administration,  142 

Pomerania,  205 

"Poor  Richard's  Almanack", 
Franklin,  177 

Population  of  United  States  at 
beginning,  69 

Populist  Party,  136 

Porto  Rico,  286 

Portugal,  262,  271 ;  Line  of  De- 
marcation, 290 

Power  of  appointment,  presi- 
dent's, 122;  German  em- 
peror's,  223-224 

"  Prairie,  The  ",  Bryant,  178 

"Prayer  of  Columbus,  The,"  84 

Preamble  to  Constitution,  The, 
quoted,  115 


400 


INDEX 


"Present  Crisis,  The,"  Lowell, 
quoted,  182;  250 

President  of  the  United  States, 
title,  107-108,  KiO;  nation- 
ality, 116;  importance  and 
influence,  127-128;  presi- 
dents since  1885,  135 

President's  Message,  128 

Presidential  Primaries,  135 

Principles  of  Just  Government, 
92 

Principles  of  prize  law,  293 

Princeton,  96,  99 

Privileges  of  Parliament,  26;  of 
legislative  bodies,  233 

Prime  Minister,  48 

Printed  Ballots,  45,  46,  133 

Problems  of  Present,  330 

Progressive  Party,  135 

Proletariat,  229 

*•  Property  is  theft  ",  241 

Property  qualifications,  26;  base 
of  English  suffrage,  50 

Property  rights,  due  process  of 
law,  306;  amendment  XIV 

Providence,  Rhode  Island,  60 

Provisions  of  Oxford,  23 

Proudhon,  241 

Prussia,  {see  Germany)  at 
Congress  of  Vienna,  205; 
Rise,  214;  Constitution  of 
1849,  217;  Government, 
224-226;  suffrage,  225;  cen- 
ter of  German  Empire,  227; 
Danzig,  260 

Pure  Food  Laws,  loose  con- 
struction, 121 


Q 


Qaudruple  Alliance  (Holy  Alli- 
ance), 165,  284 

Quartering  of  Troops,  83,  306- 
307 

Queen  Anne,  42 


R 


Races  in  Austria-Hungary,  256, 
258 

Raleigh,  Sir  Walter,  35 

Randolph,  Edmund,  99 

Recall,  129-130 

Recent   Writers,  185 

Reciprocity  with  Canada,  143 

Recognition,  of  United  States, 
69;  as  a  foreign  policy,  279; 
of  South  American  Repub- 
lics, 284 

Red  Terror,  202 

Redress  of  Grievances,  25;  68, 
86-87,  93 

Referendum,  129-130 

Reform  Acts,  England,  44,  209; 
46;  50 

Reformation,  The  Protestant, 
30;  32;  320 

Reichstag,  (spe  German  Govern- 
ment) 

Reign  of  Terror,  200-203;  Pur- 
pose, ^02 

Religion,  persecution  for:  James 
I,  36;  Charles  T,  38-41 ;  Irish 
Parliament,  44;  Quakers, 
44;  in  Georgia,  62;  Tolera- 
tion; Maryland,  Rhode  Is- 
land, New  York,  60-61; 
Western  States,  146;  United 
States  Constitution,  301; 
Socialism,  237-238;  249 
Renewal  of  Magna  Charta,  22; 

82-83 
Renewal    of    Foundation    Prin- 
ciples, 321 
Republic,  definitions,  114;  con- 
stitution, 117;  will  of  peo- 
ple, 287 
Republican  Party,  134-135 
Reply  to  Hayne,  170,  176 
Representation,    England,    43; 


INDEX 


401 


Reichstag,  223;  Landtag, 
225 

Residence  Qualifications,  308 

Responsibility,  Ministerial,  be- 
ginning, 24-25;  lack  in  U.  S., 
125-126;  Supplied  by  Presi- 
dent's leadership,  128;  Not 
in  German  Constitution, 
220;  Chancellor,  223-224; 
Necessity  for  it,  345 

Restoration  of  Stuarts,  40-41; 
63 

Revolution,  American  (see 
American  Revolution) 

Revolution,  French  {see  French 
Revolution) 

Revolution  of  1688,  41-42 

Revolutions  of  1830,  208-209 

Revolutions  of  1848,  209-211 

**  Revolutionary  Catechism," 
241;  quotation,  242 

Revolutionary  Theories  and 
Movements,  234-249;  neces- 
sity for  studyinjy^them,  234; 
socialism,  236-240;  anar- 
chism, 241-243;  syndicalism, 
243;  I.  W.  W.  ism,  2*3, 
245;  effect  of  repression, 
261 

Rhode  Island,  charter,  religion, 
60;  trade,  72;  not  at  Consti- 
tutional Convention,  101; 
tariff,  139-140 

Richard  IT,  24 

Right,  to  petition,  43,  166;  of 
popular  assembly  to  raise 
revenue,  115;  to  assemble,  to 
free  speech,  to  free  press, 
93,  117;  of  search,  292-294; 
of  people  to  reform  or 
abolish  government,  321 

Rights,  to  trial  by  jury,  29,  66; 
natural,  50;  property,  50; 
immemorial,  66;  of  neutrals, 
293;  guaranteed,  301;  civil, 


305-308;  political,  308-309; 
undetermined,  307;  "of 
Englishmen,"  320 

Riis,  Jacob,  42 

Riley,  James  Whitcomb,  185 

"  Rip  Van  Winkle",  Irving,  179 

Rivalry,  of  European  Powers, 
264-265;  between  France 
and  Spain  in  North  Amer- 
ica, 270;  between  England 
and  Germany,  272-273 

"Robert  of  Lincoln",  Bryant, 
178 

Robespierre,  201 

Robin  Hood  Tales,  17 

Roman  Empire,  13;  212;  318 

Roosevelt,  Theodore,  127;  128; 
268 

Rotation  in  Office,  121;  spoils 
system,  122-123;  in  West, 
146 

Rotten  Boroughs,  43;  45 

Roumania,  264 

Rousseau,   321 

Runnymede,  21;  in  quotation, 
77;  88 

Russell,  "  Lord  "  John,  44;  51 

Russia,  258-261;  desire  for  sea- 
port, 259;  "digesting  fron- 
tiers," 260;  in  1914,  274; 
Russia  and  the  Soviet,  245; 
Japanese  Russian  War,  267- 
268;  dispute  with  United 
States,  284;  China,  298 

Rutledge,  John,  99 

Ryan,  Father,  "  Southern  Poet," 
195 


St.   Just,  201 
St.  Petersburg,  258 
Sabotage,  244 
Sacredness  of  life,  325 
Somaliland,  270 


402 


INDEX 


San  Martin,  283 

Sanctity  of  Home,  325 

Sardinia,  205 

Saxons  {see  Anglo-Saxon) 

"Scarlet  Letter,  The",  Haw- 
thorne, 183 

Schools,  Common,  Latin,  58; 
Labor,  148,  149-150;  Ger- 
man, 232 

Schoolmen,  philosophy  of  gov- 
ernment, 319-320 

Schuyler,  157 

Schurz,  Carl,  280 

Scotland,  Union  with  England, 
42;  representation,  45 

Scutage,  28 

Secession,  War  of,  75 

Second  Empire,  France,  252 

Second  Reform  Act,  England, 
46 

Secret  diplomacy,  Congress  of 
Vienna,  204-207;  in  Europe, 
267;  cause  of  Great  War, 
277 

Secretary  of  State,  J.  Q.  Adams, 
284-286;  Bryan,  293;  John 
Hay,  299 

Security  Personal,  305-306 

Sedan,  252 

Sedition  Act,  162 

Self-determination,  65;  lack  of, 
220-229 ;  American  ideal, 
333 

Self-government  in  Colonics,  55, 
56 

"Self-Reliance",  Emerson,  181 

Senate,  United  States,  a  com- 
promise, 105;  Impeachment, 
106;  Usefulness,  107;  popu- 
lar election,  118;  contrast 
with  German  senate,  222; 
(see  chapters  V  and  VI) 

Separation  of  Powers,  106,  107 

Serajevo,  274 

Serbia,  258,  264 


Sherman,  Roger,  100,  107 

Sheriff,  16,  27 

Ship-money,  28,  38,  68 

Siberia,  260 

Signers   of   Constitution,    110 

Signers  of  Declaration,  87,  92, 
350 

Silicia,  256 

Simon  de  Montfort,  22-23 

Sovereignty,  Theory  of,  German, 
229;  Philosophers,  318-321; 
American,  321-323 

Slav  Peril,  258 

Slave  Trade,   105,   138 

Slavery,  137-139;  introduced,  5C; 
in  Constitution,  105;  Thir- 
teenth Amendment,  118; 
political  aspect,  134-138; 
Abolition  movement,,  138; 
Northwest  Ordinance,  160; 
Whittier,  181 

Slovaks,  256 

Slovenes,  258 

Slavonia,  258 

"Snowbound",  Whittier,  181 

"  Social  Contract ",  321 

Socialist  Party  in  U.  S.,  134 

Socialism,  236-240;  socialism  to- 
day, 246;  quotations,  248- 
249 

Songs  and  ballads  of  the  Rev- 
olution, 177 

"  Song  of  Marion's  Men  ",  178 

Sons  of  Liberty,  66,  148 

Source  of  Government,  Saxon 
times,  14-15;  King,  20,  26; 
Parliament,  41-42;  Barons, 
80;  in  the  United  States,  71; 
Declaration  of  Independ- 
ence, 86,  93;  in  Germany, 
Bundesrat,  222;  in  Russia, 
Czar,  261 ;  in  a  Republic,  the 
people,  319-324 

South  America,  Break  with 
Spain,    280,    284;    Leaders, 


INDEX 


403 


283;  Canning's  help,  284; 
sketch  map,  285;  policy  of 
United  States  toward,  288- 
289;  numerous  revolutions, 
327 

South    Carolina,    169 

South  Hesse,  220 

Sovereignty  of  the  people,  71; 
St.  Augustine,  319-320; 
Aquinas,  320;  Hobbes, 
Hooker,  Locke,  321;  Vir- 
ginia Bill  of  Rights,  321; 
Declaration  of  Independ- 
ence, 322;  Constitution,  322; 
Marshall,  322-323;  Lincoln, 
323;  Wilson,  333 

Soviet,  The,  245 

Spain,  179,  180,  262,  263,  291 

Spanish  Armada,  28 

Sparticus  Group,  246 

Speaker  of  House  of  Commons, 
125;  Representatives,  125 

"  Spy,  The  ",  Cooper,  179 

Stamp  Act,  The,  66-67 

Star  Chamber  Court,  33,  36,  38 

Strassburg,  251 

State   Church,   301 

State  Constitutions,  71,  167 

State  Insurance,  231 

State  ownership,  239 

State,  Theory  of,  German,  229; 
American,  324 

States,  The,  Article  TV  of  the 
Constitution,  117;  124 

States  Rights,  114,  159,  160 

Statute  of  1429,  27 

Statute  of  Religious  Freedom, 
quotation,  234 

Statutes,  beginnings  25;  annul- 
ment, 28 

Styria,  Styrians,  258 

Stuart  Period,.35-42 

Suez  Canal,  270,  295 

Suffrage,  in  early  England,  14- 
15;     27-28;     extended,    44; 


btises,  50;  in  Massachusetts, 
58,  59,  69;  Constitution,  74; 
woman  suffrage,  74,  75,  118; 
changes,  75;  western  states, 
146;  Negroes,  139,  148,  198; 
granted  to  women  in  Nor- 
way, 225;  control,  302;  citi- 
zenship and  suffrage,  304; 
exclusive  from,  308;  Res- 
idence qualifications,  308 

"  Summary  View  of  the  Writers 
of  America  ",  Jefferson,  176 

Supreme  Court,  106,  116,  119, 
163 

Surplus  Value,  237,  238 

Sweden,  262 

Switzerland,  205,  211,  242 


Taft,   President,  128;   135;   143 

"Tales  of  a  Traveller,"  Irving, 
179 

"Tales  of  a  Wayside  Inn,' 
Longfellow,  180 

Tariff,  The,  134;  1817,  133;  139- 
145;  First  proposed  meas- 
ure, 139;  for  protection  and 
revenue,  140;  1816  for  pro- 
tection, 140;  of  abomina- 
tions, 141;  Compromise  of 
1833,  142;  Low  tariff,  142; 
Issue  1870-1911,  142;  Mc- 
Kinley,  142;  substitutes, 
142;  reciprocity,  143 

Taxes,  Saxon  times,  Danegeld, 
17;  28;  control,  29;  41;  66; 
115;  illegal,  33;  Charles  1, 
37;  Income  Tax,  118;  142; 
in  France,  192;  Napoleon's 
distribution,  204;  in  Ger- 
many, 222;  in  Prussia,  225; 
in  Austria-Hungary,  256; 
Peter    the    Great   and   the 


404 


INDEX 


Russian  peasants,  258;  in 
England,  272 

Tarkington,  Booth,  185 

"  Terror,  The,"  202,  241 

Texas,  286,  288 

"  Thanatopsis,"  Bryant,  178 

Theory  of  State,  German,  229- 
231;  American,  324 

Third  Republic,  France,  252 

Tigris  and  Euphrates,  270 

"To  a  Fringed  Gentian,"  Bry- 
ant, 178 

"  To  a  Waterfowl,"  Bryant,  178 

Togoland,  271 

Tonnage  and  poundage,  28 

Town  Meeting,  58 

Township,  58 

Tories,  in  England,  41;  in  Col- 
onies, 66 

Treason,  defined,  116 

Triple  Alliance,  267;  274 

Triple  Entente,  267 

Tudors,  32 

Turkey,  264 

Twain,  Mark,   183 

"Twice  Told  Tales,"  Haw- 
thorne, 183 


U 


ognized,  69;  see  chapters  V, 
VI,   VII,  VIII,   IX,  XIV, 
XV,  XVI,  XVII 
University  of  Virginia,  151,  160 
University  of  Berlin,  229 
"Unredeemed  Italy"  (Italia  Ir- 
redenta), 206 
"  Unspeakable  Turk,"  265 
Utopian  socialism,  236 


Venezuela,  protected  by  United 
States,  328 

Victoria's  reign,  45 

Virginia,  beginnings,  36;  56; 
state  seal,  57;  in  Revolution, 
58;  Cy6;  Committee  of  Cor- 
respondence, 67;  State  Con- 
stitution, 84;  at  Constitu- 
tional Convention,  96;  Vir- 
ginia Plan,  103;  Nullifica- 
tion, 163 

"  Vision  of  Sir  Launfal,"  Lowell, 
182 

Von  Treitschke,  theory  of  state, 
229 

Voter's  Training,  A,  310 

Voting  open,  225 


"  Ukase  ",  of  czar,  284 

Ulster,  36 

"  Ulysses  ",  180 

"Uncle  Sam,"  National  Hero, 
336 

"  Uncle  Tom's  Cabin,"  180 

Union,  Act  of  (England  and 
Ireland),  44 

Union  of  Scotland  and  England, 
42 

Union,  The,  Washington's  Fare- 
well Address,  157;  Jackson, 
169;  Webster,  170;  Lincoln, 
171;  172 

United  States,  set  up  and  rec- 


W 

Wage  System,  244 

War  Debts,  France,  253 

War,  The  Great,  274 

War  of  Roses,  30,  32 

War  of  1812,  131 ;  141 ;  freedom 

of  seas,  292 
War       Franco-Prussian       (see 

Franco-Prussian  War) 
"  Warning,    The,"     Longfellow, 

181 
Washington,  Booker  T.,  310 
Washington,     George,     family, 

56;  commander-in-chief,  69; 


INDEX 


405 


constitutional  convention, 
9T;  104;  105;  abuse,  109; 
president,  111 ;  cabinet,  121; 
general  sketch,  155-158;  pa- 
triotic labors,  156;  farewell 
address,  156-158;  quota- 
tions, 280-281 ;  neutrality, 
281 ;  on  permanent  alliances, 
282 

Wat  Tyler's  Rebellion,  57 

Waterloo,  203 

Ways  and  Means,  Congressional 
Committee,  126 

Webster,  Daniel,  on  tariff,  141; 
169-171;  reply  to  Hayne, 
169;  176;  Whi'ttier  on  Web- 
ster, 181 ;  quotation  on 
French  Revolution,  188; 
Kossuth,  280-281 ;  quotation 
from  Bunker  Hill  address, 
335 

Wellington,  215 

Western  Authors,  185 

"Western  Lands",  71-74 

Westward  Movement,  74-75 ; 
145-147 

^\Tiigs  (in  England),  40 

Whig  Party (  in  United  States), 
134 


White  Terror,  202 

Whittier,  John  G.,  181;  quota- 
tion, 300 

Whitman,  Walt,  183;  quotation, 
131 

Wilhelmstrasse,  253 

William  I  of  England,  19 

William  I  of  Prussia,  219;  Em- 
peror of  Germany,  251-252 

William  II  of  German  Empire, 
255 

William  and  Mary,  41 

Williams,   Roger,  60 

Wilson,  James,  99,  109 

Wilson,  Woodrow,  128,  135; 
tariff,  143;  quotation,  77, 
316;  Cabinet,  (illustration), 
317;  Ideals  of  World  Peace, 
332 

Winthrop,  Governor,  59 

"  Witness,  The,"  Longfellow,  181 

Woman,  an  alien  by  marriage, 
304 

Woman    suffrage,    74,    118,    119 

Writers  (American)  influence, 
186-187 

Writs  of  Assistance,  176 

Written  Constitution,  First,  60 

Wurtemburg,  220 


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